Bishop and Pine Creek Fuels Reduction
Summary
SCH Number
2026050519
Public Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
(CAL FIRE)
Document Title
Bishop and Pine Creek Fuels Reduction
Document Type
NOE - Notice of Exemption
Received
Posted
5/13/2026
Document Description
The primary purpose of this project is to provide defensible space to help protect structures and developments and provide safety for visitors and residents in the Bishop Creek and Pine Creek drainages in the event of a wildfire. An additional objective is to improve and protect the ecological health of the vegetation in the project area. The project should allow managers more flexibility to meet resource objectives to improve and maintain ecological health using wildfire away from the developed recreation areas and communities once they are buffered by a zone of sparser fuels. Defensible space and fuelbreaks are not intended to stop a fire, but to help reduce the fire intensity and provide a safer location for fire suppression forces to defend structures and control a fire if needed. Methods used will depend on vegetation types, terrain and the overall setting, including distance to homes or other development. The different methods that will be used are mowing, hand cutting, thinning, limbing, removal of dead and down, fuelwood collection, piling and burning, chipping, and seeding/planting native species.
Contact Information
Name
David Haas
Agency Name
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)
Job Title
Forester II
Contact Types
Lead/Public Agency
Phone
Email
Location
Cities
Bishop
Counties
Inyo
Regions
Southern California
Other Location Info
Townships 6-8S, Ranges 30-31E, SBB&M
Notice of Exemption
Exempt Status
Statutory Exemption
Type, Section or Code
PRC Section 4799.05(d)(1)
Reasons for Exemption
The California Environmental Quality Act does not apply to prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) if the primary role of a state or local agency is providing funding or staffing for those projects. CAL FIRE will commit staffing and associated internal funding to the implementation of this project. All proposed activities are included in the Inyo National Forest’s Decision Memo for the Bishop and Pine Creek Fuels Reduction Project signed January 23, 2018. The Decision Memo and associated documents are available for public review on the Inyo National Forest’s Proposed Projects Archive website or United States Forest Service’s Pinyon Public website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/inyo/projects/archive/42921
Attachments
Notice of Exemption
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