Weaverville Community Forest Fuels and Recreation Project

Between 2001 and 2017, four fast moving wildfires burned into or near the WCF. These fires resulted in varying amounts of high to extreme fire behavior. Since that first fire, numerous fuels reduction projects were implemented with the goal to reduce wildfire losses to infrastructure, homes, and natural resources and to keep people and firefighters safe.

As these past fuel reduction treatment areas age, vegetation and surface fuel loadings accumulate, which makes it ineffective at supporting low to moderate fire behavior during a future wildfire. Currently, there is a need to maintain past fuels reduction treatment areas, as well as, past wildfire footprints. This is how the WCF Fuels and Recreation project came about.

Hover over the numbered points on the map to see overgrown brush fields and dense timber stands. These past project areas are in need of maintenance in order to avoid fast moving, high intensity wildfire as experienced in the past. The WCF Fuels and Recreation Project proposes to reduce vegetation and surface fuel loadings so that these areas can maintain their effectiveness.

Fuels reduction may include one or more of a combination of methods as seen on the map. The different colors coincide with specific treatments. To learn more about the treatment units click the legend in the bottom left corner of the map.

Manual thin is selective thinning based on specified parameters. This method will generally have thinning based on tree species, size and average spacing between trees.

Mastication is used to reduce densely packed areas of small trees and brush. It cuts, grinds, and chips vegetation into small pieces which is left on site to decompose.

Prune is used to remove low level branches to create space between the forest floor and the forest canopy. Reducing ladder fuels lessens the likelihood for crown fire. Generally, a crown fire cannot spread without ladder fuels to support it.

Hand Pile Burn is a type of prescribed fire that occurs after another vegetation management treatment, such as thinning or pruning. The cut fuels are then hand piled and burned at a later date.

Understory Burn is a type of prescribed fire that is ignited and managed by firefighters within specific boundaries so that fire managers can control and maintain fire activity.

Historically, wildfires were started by lightning and Native Americans who burned frequently throughout this region. Wildfire is a natural ecological process that our forests evolved with and are dependent on. Unfortunately, suppressing fires, within the past one-hundred years, has led to the fast-moving and high-intensity wildfires that we see today. These types of fires generally occur under adverse weather conditions that create extreme fire behavior and result in high fire severity. Most damaging of all, these wildfires can destroy lives, homes, and critical infrastructure.

Prescribed fire has a range of benefits from reducing excess vegetation and surface fuel loadings to aiding in nutrient cycling. Prescribed fire is implemented under favorable weather and fuel moisture conditions in order to create low to moderate intensity fire. This type of fire is often used as a tool by land managers to create fire resilient forests that better protect communities and natural resources. The video to the right shows a low intensity understory prescribed burn within the WCF in 2015.

Resources are available to learn about when and where prescribed fire is happening. Check your local agency's social media pages or InciWeb (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov).

Forest Ecosystem

Fire is a natural part of forest ecosystems and fuels reduction treatments benefit forest health. Managing fuels is intended to reduce the accumulation of surface fuel loadings on the forest floor and dense ladder fuels that contribute to high intensity wildfire. By burning excess vegetation, nutrients can be released into the environment for use by the forest. Fuels reduction also decreases competition for limited resources, and this can lead to healthier trees.

Fuels management projects aim to create and maintain a fire resistant and resilient landscape. Fuels treatments allow our forests to not only become resistant to high intensity fire, but to also have the ability to recover after a wildfire. An overstocked forest can lose its resiliency and become more susceptible to drought, pest infestation, and catastrophic wildfire. Fire, when properly utilized, can benefit an ecosystem.

Wildlife

Fire can also help improve wildlife habitat conditions. Fuels treatments are meant to reduce forest floor build up and ladder fuels. This opens up the forest floor for better browsing for deer and better fly paths for birds of prey. The treatments are also creating a mosaic of forest habitat that give wildlife more diversity to choose from in their home range for hunting or foraging and shelter. Wildlife safety is a priority when planning fuels reduction projects to avoid unwanted disturbances to sensitive species.

Watershed

High intensity wildfires can negatively impact a watershed for many years. By implementing fuels reduction treatments, we can reduce the chance for high intensity wildfire. This will help maintain soil quality and stability within the watershed and avoid the potential for severe erosion and loss of top soils. Fuels reduction treatments will lead to slight disturbances to soils initially, but this allows small pulses of nutrients to be re-dispersed within a watershed. Over- stocked forests have a higher water use demand, therefore reducing excess live vegetation can lessen the demand and replenish watersheds.

A major aspect of the WCF Fuels and Recreation project is to provide additional safe and sustainable multi-user, non-motorized recreational opportunities. This project proposes to construct 9.8 miles of new trail and add 5.9 miles of user created trail to the Forest Service trails system.

The USDA Forest Service works collaboratively with the WCF Steering Committee, Trinity Trail Alliance, Trinity County Resource Conservation District, Watershed Resource and Training Center, private landowners and the local community to create and manage trails within the WCF trail system. These trails provide more opportunities for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and many other outdoor recreational activities.

Trail Impacts

The WCF Fuels and Recreation Project will utilize existing trail systems as unit boundaries and control lines that are needed for prescribed fire operations. Using these trails will lessen the impacts to the landscape. It also helps to maintain the current trails by managing overgrown vegetation. There will be some impacts to trail users during project implementation such as noise from chain saws and smoke from prescribed fire. Some trails may need to be rehabilitated after the prescribed fire, such as cutting down dead trees.

Smoke Impacts

Prescribed fire season follows closely behind our summer fire season once temperatures begin to decrease and relative humidity increases. It may be difficult for people to understand the necessity of smoke from prescribed fire directly after a long and smoky fire season.

Please keep in mind that prescribed fire burn plans are written to minimize negative impacts from smoke, especially to individuals who may be smoke-sensitive. Smoke, however, is a natural byproduct of fire and some amounts are unavoidable.

One thing to remember is that prescribed fire reduces vegetation and fuels accumulation that would otherwise emit large amounts of smoke during a wildfire. Tolerating small amounts of smoke for a few days now can buy us a lot later.

To learn more about the WCF fuels treatment units click the legend in the bottom left corner or the map.

• USDA Forest Service (USFS) Shasta-Trinity National Forest
• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• Trinity County Resource Conservation District (TCRCD)
• Watershed Research and Training Center (WRTC)
• Trinity Trail Alliance
• Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)- Joint Chiefs' Landscape Restoration Partnership (LRP) with USFS
• Trinity County Fire Safe Council (TCFSC)