The Mother Lode Field Office fire staff plan to conduct a controlled burn of roughly 30 piles of downed hazard trees, branches and understory brush located on approximately 40 acres of public lands in the Lily Gap project area, near the town of West Point in Calaveras County. Burn operations will start in the coming weeks and continue through spring, as weather and air quality conditions and resource availability allow. Smoke may be visible in Barton, Glenco, Pioneer, Volcano, West Point and Wilseyville.
The Bureau of Land Management is committed to keeping public landscapes healthy and productive. Pile burning is done in the winter months to take advantage of cooler temperatures and increased moisture. This controlled burn will reduce hazardous fuels to decrease the risk of wildland fire, promote forest health, improve wildlife habitat and support protection of the wildland/urban interface.
Started in 2011, the Lily Gap project is a multi-year, phased approach for fuels reduction on more than 400 acres of BLM-managed public lands. Treatments include pile burning, logging, chipping and mastication of strategically thinned hazard trees, removal of overgrown brush and dangerous ladder fuels, which can feed flames to the treetops.
