Fuel Reduction on Private Land

 

1. Name - Clancy Fuel and Bug Pile Removal

Context | Objectives | Treatment Specifics | Utilization | Targets | Pre Treatment data | Post Treatment data | Links 

W. M. Beaty & Associates manages approximately 280,000 acres of private timberland in northeastern California. In the eastside pine and mixed conifer stand, fire is a major concern. Beaty & Associates has been using biomass utilization to reduce fire threat since 1989. To date, the fuel chips generated from these operations have covered the costs of the thinnings.

This case study covers three treatments:

1. Biomass thinning that only removed wood fuel chips but not sawlogs from a plantation
2. Thinning from below in which biomass (wood fuel chips) and small diameter sawlogs were removed from a "natural" stand
3. Understocked brushfields that were cleared and then planted with follow-up weed control to facilitate survival and growth and reduce future brushy fuel loads

The first treatment occurred in an overstocked ponderosa pine stand planted about 20 years ago after wildfire, which became interlaced with tall manzanita. Trees were thinned, and much of the brush was crushed incidentally by the thinning and yarding equipment. Had total brush and slash removal been required as a regulatory condition of the thinning operation, it would have been too expensive and no treatment would have been done.

The second low thinning treatment removed 37 tons per acre, 24 tons chips and 13 tons sawlogs, primarily as ladder fuels and weaker crown trees. The third treatment, brush rehabilitation, removed 34 tons per acre, primarily brush and some weak trees. For this treatment a D7 bulldozer with a brush rake was used to clear 15 to 20 foot tall manzanita from the site. Beaty & Associates negotiated with thinning contractors to pay landowners for the material generated through thinning operations, which the contractors were initially reluctant to do.



This thinning project was put to the test when a wildfire burned through the area. The Whitmore Fire was started by an illegal campfire and grew to 1,000 acres before running into the thinned area. Once the fire hit the treated area, it dropped out of the crowns, and fire agencies were able to get an upper hand on the blaze. Once the fire reached the thinned area west of Bateman Road, it went from a column-driven crown fire (with 100 to 200 foot flame lengths) to a ground fire with occasional individual tree flare-ups. Fire fighting forces were able to go from indirect to direct attack and eventually pinch off the front of the fire before it destroyed any homes or buildings in the community of Whitmore. Although about 10,000 MBF were lost to the fire, no structures were burned.

• W. M. Beaty & Associates, Inc.
• Treatment Map