MENDO FOREST SUPERVISOR SIGNS DECISION TO INCREASE PACE AND SCALE OF FUEL PROJECTS

Post Fire Recon of M5 OHV Trail - 2018 Ranch Fire

MENDOCINO FOREST SUPERVISOR SIGNS FOREST-WIDE FUEL MANAGEMENT PLAN

 

 History was made last week at FireScape Mendocino’s (FSM) 10 year anniversary community celebration held on April 25 in Williams, CA when – for the 1^st time in my 34 year recreation advocacy and stewardship career – I witnessed a Forest Service line-officer sign a decision for a NEPA planning document. 

 

What makes this even more of a seminal moment is the decision authorizes a Forest-wide fire and fuels management strategy to dramatically increase the pace and scale of fire related projects to protect natural landscapes, cultural resources, and recreation facilities.

 

Don Amador, OHV recreation professional and co-founder of FSM, states, “This decision notice to increase the pace and scale of forest health and fuel projects could not have come at a better time as  Forest specialists, recreationists, and other stakeholders continue to grapple with the aftermath of the 2018 Ranch Fire and 2020 August Complex Fire.”

 

“Seeing Supervisor McMaster sign the decision is a highpoint for me and validates all of the hard work done by the agency and partners such as FireScape Mendocino to increase the number of fuel and post fire recovery projects on the Forest,” Amador concludes.

 

LINK TO FS DECISION DOCUMENT SIGNED AT FSM CELEBRATION

https://usfs-public.app.box.com/v/PinyonPublic/file/1514580275080

 

 Forest Service Update

 News, events and stories from Mendocino National Forest

 Decision signed on Forest-wide Prescribed Fire and Fuels Management Strategy

 

WILLOWS, Calif., April 29, 2024 — The increasing frequency and extent of high-intensity wildfires pose a significant threat to California’s ecosystems. To address the current wildfire crisis and restore forest health, Forest Supervisor Wade McMaster has signed a decision on the Mendocino Prescribed Fire and Fuels Management Strategy. McMaster signed the document in front of a diverse group of local partners, tribal representatives and community members at a FireScape Mendocino workshop and 10th anniversary celebration, held in Williams, Calif.

 

“The Mendocino Prescribed Fire and Fuels Management Strategy is incredibly important to me and my team, especially after we’ve had several catastrophic, dynamic fire seasons and other challenges with insect infestation, drought and back-to-back winters with severe storms,” said McMaster.

 

“This forest-wide and multi-phased approach will allow us to more quickly adapt to changing conditions, reduce impacts from future fire and improve forest resilience and health.”

 

With this decision, forest managers can use prescribed fire with manual and mechanical treatments to reduce the build-up of hazardous fuels (e.g., grasses, brush, small-diameter trees, downed trees and woody debris).

 

Treatments will be phased over time, targeting overly dense forest underbrush and small trees before and after wildfires. Prescribed fires will be applied at varying intensities, sizes, frequencies, seasons, and places, and manual and mechanical fuels-reduction tools will be utilized up to 20,000 acres per year to achieve and maintain desired vegetative conditions.

 

Treatments will vary across the landscape and will depend on several factors, including terrain, fire severity, desired conditions and ecology. Several constraints are in place to protect key resources. The strategy excludes treatment within Wilderness Areas and within 100-acre nest groves for the endangered Northern Spotted Owl. Also, treatments like thinning to reduce fuels are limited to small trees, up to 12 inches in diameter. No new roads or landings will be constructed under the strategy.

 

Projects under the strategy will have to meet site-specific conditions. Before the forest can implement in the field, projects will be vetted by an interdisciplinary team in a screening process. Local tribes, partners and collaborative groups like FireScape Mendocino will also play an important role in monitoring and helping identify potential areas for treatment.

 

“As we look to return fire to the landscape, our relationships are going to be key. I am excited to work alongside our tribal partners to incorporate cultural burning and healing as we move forward,” McMaster said.

 

The Mendocino Prescribed Fire and Fuels Management Strategy is consistent with the post-fire restoration framework and conforms to several elements of the 2023 Wildfire Crisis Strategy, which calls for a new paradigm to step up the pace and scale of the fuels and forest health treatments.

 

More information about the Mendocino Prescribed Fire and Fuels Management Strategy, including the decision notice and environmental assessment are available on the project website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/mendocino/?project=59722.

 

 

Forest Supervisor Wade McMaster signs decision notice on the Mendocino Prescribed Fire and Fuels Management Strategy in front of community members at FireScape Mendocino’s 10th Anniversary Celebration, Apr. 25, 2024.

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 Don Amador has been in the trail advocacy and recreation management profession for over 33 years.   Don is President of Quiet Warrior Racing LLC. Don serves as the Western States Representative for the Motorcycle Industry Council. Don is Past President/CEO and current board member of the Post Wildfire OHV Recovery Alliance. Don served as a contractor to the BlueRibbon Coalition from 1996 until June, 2018. Don served on the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission from 1994-2000. He has won numerous awards including being a 2016 Inductee into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame and the 2018 Friend of the AMA Award. Don served as the government affairs lead for AMA District 36 in Northern California from 2019 – 2023. Don is a Co-Founder and current Core-Team member on FireScape Mendocino.  Don is a contributor to Dealernews Magazine. Don writes from his home in Cottonwood, CA.

 

 

QWR PSA - PREVENT WILDFIRE and SUPPORT GOOD FIRE

The intense wildfires currently burning in Northern California and elsewhere in the West remind everyone of both the immediate and long-term impacts of said events to people, private property, wildlife, and access to public land recreation.

Post Fire View from Multi-Use Trail - 2013 Rim Fire

Stanislaus NF

QWR believes the recreation community has a responsibility to do their part in helping prevent the accidental start of a wildfire.

As you know, extreme wildfires can have an immediate impact on OHV recreation with implementation of public access bans in the burn area for periods of one year or longer.  They also destroy management tools such as trail delineators, signs, kiosks, and campground facilities.  Costly soil erosion and water quality trail structures can often be obliterated in the initial attack by dozers blading fire lines around the blaze.

Post Fire Closure to All User Groups - 2012 Mill Fire

Mendocino NF

In the link below, the U.S. Forest Service has some excellent advice on how the recreation community can follow simple steps to help reduce the accidental start of a wildfire.

LINK TO FS FIRE PREVENTION

https://smokeybear.com/en/about-wildland-fire/benefits-of-fire

QWR is also engaged with the FireScape Mendocino (part of the Fire Learning Network) which supports managed or prescribed fire as an important tool to reduce the potential for larger more intense wildfires and/or to improve forest health.

LINK TO PRESCRIBED FIRE

https://smokeybear.com/en/about-wildland-fire/benefits-of-fire/prescribed-fires

LINK TO FIRESCAPE MENDOCINO

https://mendocinofirescape.blogspot.com/

SPECIFIC TIPS FOR OHV RECREATIONISTS

QWR wants to remind OHV enthusiasts to follow the recommendations from the BLM and other land management agencies to… “Never park a vehicle over dead grass; the catalytic converter can ignite the vegetation…”

QWR also strongly supports the proper use of a well-maintained USDA Forest Service Approved spark arrestor when operating an OHV on public lands.

Link to Forest Service Spark Arrestor Guide

http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/pubs/html/03511307/03511307.htm

Another suggestion for operating an OHV during the fire season is for the operator to remove any vegetation that has gotten trapped in the vehicle frame or body.  Our land management friends in Canada produced a short and informative video about the need to rid our vehicles from any buildup of dead grass or other vegetative debris when out on the trail.

ESRD Alberta Canada PSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6vPd6a3-5U

QWR believes that OHVs can be operated safely during the summer months if riders and operators follow many of the common sense regulations and guidelines that will help prevent wildfires and allow us to continue our recreational activities on public lands.

Again, QWR believes that trail enthusiasts have an increasingly important role in regards to prevention of large/intense wildfires and support for increased fuel reduction/forest health programs and projects on private and public lands.

Commitment to Collaboration and the Stakeholder Process is Future of OHV Recreation

Chad Roberts (L), Tuleyome, Mary Huffman (C), The Nature Conservancy

and Fire Learning Network, Don Amador (R) Quiet Warrior Racing/BRC

As many of you know, QWR is a strong supporter of the collaborative process as it relates to forest health and recreation planning efforts.  OHVers are now an important stakeholder in public land management decision-making.   That hasn’t always been the case!

According to the 2008 Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation in the United States and its Regions and States: An Update National Report from the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (NSRE) in 1960, when the first U.S. National Recreation Survey was done for the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, off-highway motorized recreation was not included as a recreational activity. There were, of course, many people who rode motorcycles on back country trails and used 4-wheel-drive vehicles (such as jeeps) to gain access to the back country, with and without roads. But there was no recognition of off-highway motorized recreation (then referred to as off-road driving) as a population-wide outdoor activity and the use levels were modest. However, OHV use is now recognized as one of the faster growing outdoor activities.

Earlier today, I was given the opportunity (as an OHV stakeholder) to give a presentation on  “Collaborative Engagement in Land Use Management to Meet Recreational Needs and Other Nontraditional Objectives” at the 43^rd Natural Areas Conference at U.C. Davis, California.

There were 7 presentations as part of the Organized Session entitled- “Science and Collaborative Action: Addressing Climate Change, Disturbance, and Restoration in California’s Northern Coast Range and Beyond.”

The important role that collaboration plays or should play in modern land management planning (forest health/fuel/timber projects, private land forestry and conservation efforts, forest plan revisions, mobilizing local and elected official support for projects and legislative initiatives, forest collaboratives such as FireScape Mendocino, motorized and non-motorized recreational trails, etc.) was highlighted by the speakers.

Again, QWR is committed to the collaborative process as a strategy to bring land agency staff, conservation groups, local government, other diverse stakeholders, and the trail-based recreation community together with a common goal of both protecting resources and providing a high-quality outdoor experience.  This stakeholder process is centered on attending meetings and field trips where information is shared, values are appreciated, and relationships are formed.

QWR appreciates that federal land agencies have made a long-term commitment to a substantive stakeholder process on the front-end of the NEPA process.   This is a much needed and welcome change from historic NEPA planning efforts where the agency had already made the decision and was simply going through the required public process as more or less of a formality.

The agency’s shift to investing more time up front in collaborative efforts also requires the recreation community (both motorized and non-motorized) to make a similar commitment to getting some skin-in-the-game by attending meetings and substantively engaging with agency planners, recreation staff, conservation groups, and other stakeholders.

QWR has an axiom that “The quality of your local FS/BLM trail recreation program is or will be directly proportional to the quality of your engagement with agency staff and other users.”

Now is the time for your club to appoint a designated representative(s) to attend local land use planning meetings and make that long-term commitment to help ensure that you and your family continues to have access to high quality trail-based recreational opportunities.  Congrats to those clubs and individuals who have made that commitment.  It is the future of OHV.

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*Don Amador is a Founding Core-Team Member of FireScape Mendocino

Region 5 Overview/Video on Forest Health, Partnerships, Wildfire, and Recreation

R5 Regional Forester, Randy Moore, Reviews

Trail Armoring Project on Mendocino National Forest

QWR wants to commend Region 5 for its effort to inform the public on the agency’s mission and commitment to the residents of California and the resource.

As many of you know, there are outstanding OHV/OSV recreational opportunities in Region 5 which includes all of the National Forests in California.

QWR has had the privilege to work with the Region’s recreation staff on various projects, planning efforts, and trail workshops.  QWR can attest to the Region’s commitment to partnerships and to having a high-quality system of designated OHV/OSV roads, trails, and areas.

Soil Scientist, Roger Poff, Explains R5 OHV Soil Study

2014 QWR Trail Workshop - Tahoe National Forest

Links are provided to Region 5’s outreach webpage that addresses a number of issues which include; timber, recreation, fuel reduction programs, wildfire suppression, forest collaboratives, and partnerships.

Region 5 Mission Overview

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/landmanagement/?cid=FSEPRD479938

Regional Forester, Randy Moore, Video on Mission of Region 5

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/landmanagement/?cid=fseprd486009

QWR believes it is important for user groups to make a similar commitment to remain engaged with the Region and Forests in regards to the planning process, forest projects, partnerships, volunteerism, and recreation management efforts.

FireScape Mendocino - A Forest Collaborative in Region 5

It is also important for public land agencies to continue efforts to enhance their outreach program by publishing robust narratives that highlight the agency’s various challenges, opportunities, and solutions.