St. Louis Fuels Reduction Project

St. Louis Fuels Reduction Project

This NOE is for an approx 250-acre broadcast burn within the existing St. Louis Fuels Reduction Project. The following is a brief overview of the project; "The Forest Service proposes to reduce the risk from wildfires to the rural communities of LaPorte and American House from wildfires by modifying fuels and constructing Defensible Fuel Profile Zones (DFPZs) over a 500 acre project area. This action is needed since forest stands in the St. Louis Project area are crowded with dense timber and brush that have become increasingly flammable with age, resulting in an elevated risk of wildfire. In the project area, the number of thinbarked, shade-tolerant trees (such as white fir and incense cedar) have increased as a result of past fire suppression and management practices, acting as a fuel ladder. Treatments would include reduction of surface, ladder, and canopy fuels through a variety of methods such as mechanical harvest, hand thinning, piling and burning, chipping and removal, and prescribed underburning. No trees greater than 30 inches diameter breast height (dbh) would be cut. Treatments would reduce current canopy cover from 40-59 percent, while increasing canopy base height and reducing surface fuel loading to less than 5 tons per acre of dead woody material less than 3 inches in diameter. Treatment prescriptions would call for removal of the smaller, suppressed, and intermediate-crown-class trees; removal of some co-dominant trees; and retention of the largest trees to achieve the target canopy cover or spacing guidelines. Prescribed underburning would be used to treat excess live and dead vegetation. Treatment in Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas (RHCAs) would be limited to underburning. Ignition would occur along contour strips upslope of the RHCA and fire would be allowed to back down-slope into them. The desired condition is to have trees spaced approximately 18-24 feet apart, reduced ground fuels, and flame lengths under 4 feet to promote fire resilient stands, including a higher proportion of shade intolerant species in the overstory and reduced crowding in the understory. This condition may also allow plant species that do not germinate in dense stands the opportunity to grow and provide greater biodiversity.

Plumas