Fuels Management

The Fuels Management Program on the Sierra National Forest is dedicated to improving the health of the forest through the reduction and management of the accumulation of fuels on our forested lands. The composition of our forests have changed over the last 100+ years, in part due to fire suppression and exclusion. Prior to Euro-American settlement, the regional forests experienced relatively frequent low- to moderate-severity fires (in some places, as frequent as every 10-15 years). Because we have removed these frequent, naturally occurring fires from the landscape, the fuel loading (forest biomass) has accumulated to such a degree that the risk of severe wildfires is very high. Many places on the Forest have extreme fuel loading, a greater density of dead and dying trees, and numerous structures in and around the forest. To address these problems we use an integrated management philosophy that includes mechanical treatment of hazardous fuels and prescribed fire.

Mechanical Treatment of Hazardous Fuels

Fire can be good for people and the land. Removing fire from the landscape can cause ecosystems that need periodic fire to become unhealthy: trees are stressed by overcrowding, fire-dependent species disappear, and flammable fuels build up and become hazardous. The Sierra National Forest manages prescribed fires to benefit natural resources and protect communities. However, in some places and under some conditions, it may be too difficult to safely use prescribed burning. This is where the mechanical treatment of hazardous fuels can be a valuable tool.

Mechanical treatment of hazardous fuels means reducing the amount of vegetation which has built up to dangerous levels, or changing the arrangement of these fuels in the environment. Mechanical treatments can benefit ecosystems and people by:

• Reducing the probability of catastrophic fires;
• Helping maintain and restore healthy and resilient ecosystems;
• Protecting human communities.

Examples of mechanical treatment include the thinning of dense stands of trees, or other fuel treatments that make an area better able to withstand fire. Such treatments might be piling brush, pruning lower branches of trees, or creating fuel breaks. Tools that are used to carry out the mechanical treatment of hazardous fuels range from hand tools (such as chainsaws and rakes), to large machines (like bulldozers, masticators (also called a forestry mulching machine), and wood chippers).

Mechanical treatment can be used on its own or together with prescribed burning to change how wildfire behaves, so that when a fire does burn through a treated area, it is less destructive, less costly, and easier to control. Often, mechanical fuels treatments are followed by prescribed fire to create effective hazard reduction.

Fuels Management Projects:

One of our interdisciplinary, collaborative projects, that includes fuels management initiatives, is the Dinkey Landscape Restoration Project.

• Learn more about this project.

Prescribed Burning:

• Learn more about Prescribed Burning on the Sierra National Forest
• Making the Sierra National Forest more resilient to fire