MENDOCINO CO., 11/21/24 – Laytonville residents and travelers along U.S. Route 101 may notice smoke or aircraft north of town due to a prescribed burn at Vasser Ranch this weekend.
The burn is organized by the Eel River Recovery Project and is a collaboration of landowners and Cal Fire. Scot Steinbring of Torchbearr, a Yreka-based company that teaches how to implement and manage prescribed burns, will support the effort.
The burn will take place Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. daily on Vasser Ranch, approximately 7 miles north of Laytonville. The burn is weather-dependent and subject to change.
According to the project, the fire is part of a multi-year watershed project along Tenmile Creek. The goal is “to return good fire to the ecosystem, thinning areas of dense trees and reducing the buildup of woody fuels on the forest floor, the consequence of over a century of fire suppression.”
By burning the piles of debris, the fuel load will be reduced and allow for safe and effective prescribed burns to take place in the future. The debris was collected over the year by Elk Ridge Tree Service, as part of the project.
This is the second prescribed burn this year associated with the Tenmile Creek project.
A burn, also facilitated by Steinbring, took place in October. According to the Eel River Recovery Project, the fire burned approximately 30-acres of mixed hardwood and conifer forest and reduced the number of invasive plants.
This weekend’s 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, which uses cap-and-trade dollars paid by greenhouse gas-emitting companies to fund climate resiliency, public health and environmental projects.