AUBURN, Calif. - Today, the Bureau of Reclamation announced two fuel reduction projects to begin on Monday to help prevent wildfires within the Auburn State Recreation Area. The projects are part of a five-year fire prevention/fuels reduction plan. Reclamation, Cal Fire, Placer County Resource Conservation District, and the California Conservation Corps are working together to focus treatments on areas near public facilities and residences.
In Placer County, Cal Fire will begin burning piles of cut brush on a shaded fuel break project area on federal lands next to Auburn State Recreation Area’s park headquarters on Highway 49 during December as weather and burn conditions allow. The piles will be burned for three-to-four weeks on five acres at two separate locations; trails will remain open.
In El Dorado County, they will begin clearing a 95-acre shaded fuel break section on federal lands on the northeast side of Auburn Lake Trails community and north of Highway 193 on the Georgetown Divide within the American Canyon. The work will extend until the end of December; trails will remain open.
Shaded fuel breaks slow wildfire growth by decreasing the amount of vegetation or fuel (small trees and brush) that could burn. Reducing the undergrowth, or “ladder fuels," helps reduce the risk of a fire from reaching into tree branches. This slows a fire from spreading, while allowing fire crews, engines, and aircraft to safely suppress the fire.
Contact Beth Dyer to learn more about this project at elizabethdyer@usbr.gov.
Source: Bureau of Reclamation
