UPDATED, 10:00 a.m., 10/9/24 – An air quality advisory has been issued for parts of north county due to the burns.
MENDOCINO CO., 10/7/24 – Laytonville residents and travelers along U.S. Route 101 may notice smoke or aircraft north and south of town when two prescribed burns take place this week.
The first starts Wednesday and is a vegetation management project on Shamrock Ranch, east of Route 101 and south of Laytonville, said Cal Fire, the agency that is overseeing the burn. The fire is expected to last three days.
“This prescribed burn will treat approximately 2000-acres of grasslands, chaparral, and understory vegetation within oak woodlands and mixed conifer habitats,” said Cal Fire, “creating a mosaic of variously burned vegetation and islands of unburned habitat.”
The burn is part of the state’s efforts to reduce fuels as part of the California Fire Plan and California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan.
The second fire is expected to take place Friday and Saturday on lower Tenmile Creek, near Route 101 and approximately 5 miles north of Laytonville.
This fire is part of the Eel River Recovery Project and is a collaboration of landowners and Cal Fire, said the project. Scot Steinbring of Torchbearr, a Yreka-based company that teaches how to implement and manage prescribed burns, will support the effort.
According to the project, the burn is funded by Cal Fire’s Forest Health Program.
The project is seeking volunteers to participate in prescribed burns in the future. Contact Alicia Bales, managing director of the Eel River Recovery Project, at (916) 595-8724 for information about volunteering.
Both projects are weather dependent and timelines and implementation is subject to change.
Please find related coverage about this subject from The Mendocino Voice below.
With these high temperatures and low humidity, I have to wonder if they shouldn’t wait.
years ago they had what they called >Range inprovement but was canceled because of land owners concern about fires going off their land onto others ? thus causing lawsuits again them or property damage ? what needs to be done like the indians did in covelo years ago burn during the rainy season ? yes burn one hundred acres let rain put it out do anopther hundred ?