USFS News: Lake Tahoe Basin - $4.3 million for prescribed burns, thinning

$4.3 million targeted to reduce Tahoe fire threat

RENO, Nev.—Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has approved another $4.3 million for various projects designed to reduce the wildfire threat at Lake Tahoe.

The funding will allow more prescribed burns and cutting of thick stands of trees on U.S. Forest Service-managed land throughout the Tahoe basin.

A special two-state commission recommended such projects after a fire destroyed 254 homes and caused $140 million in property damage in June 2007 in South Lake Tahoe.

"Implementation of these fuels reduction projects is critical, not only to protect residents of Lake Tahoe but help improve the overall health of the surrounding forests," Kempthorne said.

"The Department of the Interior remains committed to protecting this extraordinarily special area," he added.

Last year, the panel established by Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recommended that thinning of overgrown forests around communities should be completed within five years and within a decade throughout the entire Tahoe basin.

Past clearcutting and later environmental regulations designed to protect the lake have led to forests jam-packed with spindly, unhealthy trees that can ignite quickly.

The tree density found throughout much of the Tahoe basin can lead to highly destructive crown fires, in which flames reach the tops of trees. A forest filled with more mature trees that are spread out is better able to withstand wildfire.

Source: Mercury News - Link