RANGERS ASK FOR INPUT ON FOREST’S FUTURE
OROVILLE » Rangers from the Feather River Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest hosted a town hall Wednesday at the Feather River Tribal Health Center in Oroville.
“The main purpose is to know more from you about what you want to see in the landscape,” said District Ranger Dave Brillenz. “Of the 300,000 acres of forest 200,000 have burned.”
The town hall’s purpose was to gather public and stakeholder input to influence future actions on public lands.
“Feather River wants to be as inclusive as possible,” Brillenz said. “We want to do the greatest good as best we can.”
Andre Sanchez of California Wilderness Coalition attended the town hall with a colleague.
“I’m here to support the efforts as a friend of Plumas National Forest,” Sanchez said. “I’m just here to listen and see where we are. We’re trying to see how we can support. We’re involved as a grassroots organization and want to get the public involved.”
Ranger Division Chief Three James Lico talked about how the forests have been impacted.
“The fires forever changed our landscape,” said Lico.
Brillenz said there are some steps to follow in the process.
“Actions so far are not enough, we need more. We’re looking for more innovative ways to approach the future,” said Brillenz. “The next step is educating people of what hazard projects are next and start with education. And we want to get people comfortable with prescribed burns.”
FRRD District Planner Clay Davis talked about how to handle fires afterwards.
“As soon as fires are looking to be contained we look at what’s happened and what resources were used,” said Davis. “Then we start planning and proposing about what we think is correct.”
Davis said that the North Complex impacted 1,000 roads.
“We want to protect communities,” Davis said. “We can’t stop fires from happening but we can reduce the risks.”
For more information about the FRRD, visit https://www. fs.usda.gov/recarea/plumas/ recarea/?recid=11207.
Representatives from Cal Fire, California State Parks and the California Wilderness Coalition were present, as well as about 50 members of the community and other concerned citizens and stakeholders.