Lower Deer Creek Penn Valley Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project

Lower Deer Creek Penn Valley Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project

The proposed project is to perform targeted fuel reduction treatments within 1,011 acres around Lake Wildwood, Penn Valley, and Rough and Ready. These areas were selected for treatment to prioritize evacuation route improvements and manage roadside vegetation based on operational needs, communities most at risk, fire history, and ignition vulnerability. The objective of this project is to reduce hazardous fuels along critical transportation routes for residential evacuation and safe ingress and egress for emergency personnel, protection of critical community lifelines, and the reduction of threats to community health and natural resources within WUI areas of western Nevada County. The proposed action consists of the removal of ground and ladder fuels within 150 linear feet of roadway centerlines, thinning of trees and brush to reduce crown closure, removal of dead and dying trees less than 14 inches diameter breast height (DBH) along serviceable roadways or within landscape areas, and application of herbicide to control the future regrowth of unwanted vegetation for maintenance of an understory canopy without fire-prone fuels. Both mechanized and manual techniques will be deployed for the removal of fuels. The mechanized technique will involve the use of heavy machinery and equipment such as track hoes, track chippers, and track equipment with masticator heads. The manual technique will involve the use of hand crews equipped with chainsaws and other field-deployable equipment. The mechanized technique may cover more acreage per day, but its use is limited by slope, access, seasonal considerations, and similar limitations that do not apply to the manual technique. Commercial-sized trees will not be included in the operations. No mechanical treatment will occur on slopes 65 percent or greater or when site conditions limit treatment to handwork. Best Management Practices have been incorporated into the project by design. Fuel reduction, biomass use, herbicide treatment, and erosion control activities will be conducted. Work will focus on improving forest health, vegetation management, forest undergrowth maintenance, and biomass utilization. Treatment will reduce vertical and horizontal continuity of fuels, removing competition from small, closely spaced, fire-vulnerable species, and promoting a smaller number of resilient, larger trees. Generally, living trees 14 inches DBH and under will be spaced to a distance of greater than 30 feet. These fuel reduction treatments will allow roadways to serve as areas where fire intensity decreases and act as strategic locations to deploy firefighting resources in the event of fire, hampering fire’s ability to jump roadways.

Unincorporated Areas of Penn Valley

Nevada

Countywide, Northern California, Unincorporated

California Air Resources Board (ARB), California Department of Conservation (DOC), California Department of Fish and Wildlife, North Central Region 2 (CDFW), California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), California Department of Transportation, District 3 (DOT), California Department of Water Resources (DWR), California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES), California Highway Patrol (CHP), California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), California Natural Resources Agency, California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Sacramento Region 5 (RWQCB), California State Lands Commission (SLC), Central Valley Flood Protection Board, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Drinking Water, State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Quality

Other (Non-Development (Hazardous Fuels Management))

Community Plan

Aesthetics, Air Quality, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Geology/Soils, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Mandatory Findings of Significance, Noise, Public Services, Recreation, Tribal Cultural Resources, Vegetation, Wetland/Riparian, Wildfire