Fuel reduction project cuts fire risk in SoHum
A collaborative fuel reduction project is underway in Southern Humboldt County near Garberville. The joint project is a partnership between Cal Fire, the Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council, and the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District.
“One thing we are trying to do is pre-fire treatment in high hazard areas,” said Cal Fire Vegetation Management Program forester Jason Butcher. “We worked with the Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council to reach out to landowners. Fuel reduction projects can often change fire behavior and protect communities.”
The fuel reduction project encompasses a 48-acre area primarily on the east side of Garberville. Cal Fire crews and contractors will use hand tools, weed eaters, chainsaws, and wood chippers to reduce excess fuels on the private properties in the project area.
“The goal is to have everything closest to town treated before (this year’s) fire season,” Butcher said.
The fuel removal will include weed-eating, brush removal, thinning of trees and falling small, suppressed trees. Remaining trees will also have lower limbs removed to eliminate “fuel ladders” that provide a path for wildfire to climb from surface fuels like grass and brush up into the crowns of trees.
Noting that 2020 was a devastating year for wildfires in California and as this particular project is underway near Garberville, Humboldt — Del Norte Cal Fire Unit Chief Kurt McCray encouraged all homeowners in wildland areas to continue to work to create defensible space around their homes.
Cal Fire emphasizes that with increased defensible space around homes and shaded fuel breaks such as the project near Garberville, both individual homes and entire communities will be safer against wildfire.
More information about how to prepare and protect your home from wildfire is available at www.ReadyForWildfire. org.