Forest thinning project underway above Incline Village

Almost 4,000 acres of forest on the North Shore are being treated to reduce the risk of wildfire in Lake Tahoe. Named the Incline Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project, U.S. Forest Service crews resumed work on the project last week now that summer is over. Mechanical cut-to-length (CTL) tree removal is taking place in an area off of State Highway 431, the Mt. Rose Highway, until winter weather sets in.

They thin out the trees to remove excess vegetation that can feed wildfires and improve forest health and provide defensible space to neighboring communities.

CTL thinning involves using a harvester to cut the tree down, remove the limbs and cut the tree into sections in the cutting area. The Forest Service recommends that the public avoid this area due to the hazards posed by heavy equipment and falling trees. Hazards may be present even when operations have ceased for the day.

In addition to temporary disruption to recreational areas, other short-term impacts from forest thinning projects include changes to the appearance of basin forests. Treated areas look disturbed at first, but recover visually within a few years. Overall benefits to forests in treated areas include reducing excess trees and vegetation that can feed wildfires and providing the remaining trees with less competition for resources such as water, sunlight and nutrients, which allow the trees to grow larger and become more resistant to drought, insects and disease.
For more information about the project, visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/ltbmu/InclineFuelsProject