MENDOCINO CO., 10/26/26 – Cal Fire’s Mendocino Unit plans to conduct a prescribed burn of about 50 acres at its unit headquarters, 17501 N. Highway 101 in Willits, beginning Monday, Oct. 26.
The burn is scheduled to continue through Monday, Nov. 23, from roughly 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Smoke will be visible in the area, according to Cal Fire.
The project is part of statewide work toward fuels reduction goals set by the California Fire Plan and the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan. Residents can track progress in their communities and across the state on Cal Fire’s fuels reduction dashboard at fire.ca.gov.
Fuels reduction projects aim to break up continuous vegetation, which can change how a future wildfire behaves and helps protect nearby communities, according to Cal Fire. The agency said about 500 such projects are active during a given year, and that individual units like Mendocino identify projects in annual Unit Fire Plans developed with local stakeholders.
The burn will be conducted under tighter restrictions. If conditions make it unsafe, such as high winds or local fire activity, the burn will be canceled.
Information on creating defensible space is available at ReadyForWildfire.org.