Not all fire is bad fire - Creating healthy forests around Lake Tahoe

The following is the second in a series of stories on being a community that is prepared for wildfire.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Vegetation fires are natural and were normal before policies were created to suppress them for fear of uncontrollable and destructive wildfires as seen in the late 1800s. When some of the first residents arrived in Lake Tahoe between the Gold Rush and Silver Strike, it was common to see just six-seven Jeffrey Pines per acre. Trees in the Tahoe Basin were clear cut to provide the lumber for building mines under Virginia City.

The regrowth of Lake Tahoe came just as suppression of all fire was the norm.

It took until the 1960s for policies governing wildfire suppression changes once people recognized fire as a natural process necessary for new growth. Today, policies advocating complete fire suppression have been exchanged for those that encourage wildland fire use, or the allowing of fire to act as a tool, such as the case with prescribed burns.

"Not all fire is bad," said Cal-Fire Division Chief Chris Anthony at the recent Community Wildfire Preparedness and Evacuation Planning meeting in South Lake Tahoe.

In the Lake Tahoe Basin, agencies have been conducting prescribed fires and tree-thinning operations to bring back healthy forests and catch up on repairing the actions of pre-1960s. The old policies created overcrowded forests, flammable fuels that built up and a disappearing act of fire-dependent species. Fire helps maintain the ecosystem.

In 2007 the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission was formed and the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team (TFFT) was organized as a result of the Angora Fire in South Lake Tahoe. For the past 12 years, steady progress has been made in the Basin through the implementation of a multi-jurisdictional fuel reduction and wildfire prevention strategy.

Prescribed fires - the right fire at the right time at the right place:

- Reduces hazardous fuels, protecting human communities from extreme fires;
- Minimizes the spread of pest insects and disease;
- Removes unwanted species that threaten species native to an ecosystem;
- Provides forage for game;
- Improves habitat for threatened and endangered species;
- Recycles nutrients back to the soil; and
- Promotes the growth of trees, wildflowers, and other plants

Joint efforts by Tahoe Basin agencies have treated 24,600 acres since 2008, said Anthony. Not all efforts are by fire as other methods are implemented including hand and mechanical thinning.

In just the 2018 fiscal year, the USFS Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) completed the following according to LTBMU Vegetation Staff Officer, Victor Lyon:

- 202 acres of mechanical thinning
- 1,070 acres of hand thinning
- 175 acres of fuelwood removed
- 633 acres of prescribed burning
- 364 acres of fuels and hazard trees removed from utility corridors
- Hazard trees evaluated and felled on USFS facilities
- Biomass sold on two ongoing mechanical operations - about four mmbf (millions of board feet)
- 1960 acres prepped for mechanical thinning next year
- 400 acres prepped for hand thinning next year
- 50 acres reforested on the Emerald Fire
- 20 acres of reforestation released (hand clearing brush around planted trees) on the Angora Fire
- 2500 Christmas tree permits sold
- Approximately 6 mmbf removed and 2,080 acres treated (not counting hazard trees on USFS system lands or utility corridor work)

Anthony says there is a lot more to do. In the next five years, another 21,000 acres are scheduled to be treated around Lake Tahoe with 10,000 of those just on the South Shore.

If mechanical thinning could be used on land with more than a 30 percent slope, the process of thinning forests could go faster. Anthony spoke to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency during their last board meeting, letting them know if rules were adjusted the need for so many curing piles would be eliminated. He said new equipment puts less of an impact on land that does walking. Right now, all hand thinned areas need to stack the removed trees and slash and leave for one to three years to cure before burning.

Improving a forest's health through the reintroduction of fire into the ecosystem allows vegetation to get needed nutrients that allow it to better fight off disease and insects. Once healthy, the forest becomes resilient and can withstand stressors.

During the TRPA meeting, Anthony was joined by LTBMU Forest Supervisor Jeff Marsolais in addressing the need for code review to assist those in the field to better protect Lake Tahoe and the Sierra. They asked for the TRPA board to have their Catastrophic Wildfire Committee look at updating code with recommendations from the Tahoe Fire Fuels Team, including the need for mechanical thinning on slopes greater than 30 percent.

"Frankly, we're behind," said Anthony. He said they need regulations changed and actions completed to prevent the next wildfire catastrophe from happening in our back yard.

The next story in our series will discuss the Lake Tahoe Unified Response, First responders will know what to do, and where to go, both those in the area and coming into Lake Tahoe to help. The Mutual Aid System.