Single Publication

2/12/24 - The Cleveland National Forest (CNF) Palomar Ranger District (PRD) is set to initiate prescribed fire preparation on the following projects:

Prescribed Fire Preparation:

North Ramona Fuel break (map 1) Urban Corp crews continue working on North Ramona West cut/pile work in the crosshatch, area as weather permits.

Fry Creek (map 2) – Crews may be working on handline improvements and/or snagging.

Jeff Valley (maps 3-5) – Crews may be working on handlines and various burn prep activities.

Palomar Fuel breaks (map 6) – Crews may be working on various preparations for burning.

*Morgan Hill (map 7) – the machine piles on Morgan Hill have come up in recent discussions. Our staff will be evaluating if this is a project that we can begin putting energy towards in the coming weeks - the nature of this project (number of piles/burn-down time, remote/accessibility, potential commitment of resources) has the potential to take up a lot of staff time so it must be carefully considered. With all the other pile burn projects we have, and conditions being what they are, Morgan Hill is currently the lowest priority project for burn implementation. A map has been included below to refresh awareness of the project area.

Prescribed Fire: If we burn, it will take place in the latter half of the week on various projects (no specific plans yet). Weather, fuels, and access conditions are being monitored in the early part of the week to determine RX viability. The intent would be to try and get another RX entry in somewhere before the next potential round of moisture expected this weekend. Depending on developing plans, we may request off district (off unit) resources to assist with burning if we determine there’s a need to augment staffing.

North Ramona Fuelbreak – prescribed burning may occur in all sections of N. Ramona FB (map 1) with available burn windows. Priority burn area is the west section of the fuel break (Pamo Rd. to Weekend Villa).

Crews may initiate pile burning on various portions of the fuel Break, depending on weather, resources availability, and access.

Total acres burned on North Ramona FB to date: 163 acres.

 Palomar Mt. Piles – prescribed burning may occur in Jeff Valley & Fry Creek, with available burn windows.

Burning could go multiple days with the right conditions.

Our priority burn area in Jeff Valley (140 acres) will be in piles adjacent to Conifer Rd. (Units 11-including machine piles, 12, 9, 4, 6, and 18).

Our priority burn area in Fry Creek is Units 8a/b & 2a/b. We will likely burn in Jeff Valley as the priority over Fry Creek, but it is possible that we could burn piles in Fry Creek with snow on the ground.

Acres burned in Jeff Valley to date: 30 acres.

 Palomar Fuel breaks – prescribed burning may occur with available burn windows.

A broadcast burn attempt (Aguanga Unit 1, 61 ac.) was made on Jan 31, but was cancelled due to being out of RX with high winds (ahead of the storms). Further attempts will be made once fuel and road conditions are favorable.

Admin/Station Piles – pile burning could occur anytime conditions are favorable.

Prescribed Fire is part of Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: https://fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis. Prescribed fire plays an important role in forest health and in reducing extreme wildfires and their negative impact. These fires also help reduce heavy fuel loads while simultaneously opening the conifer forest structure and maintaining the health of meadow habitats. Fire is also used to enhance native plant communities and cultural landscapes and improve wildlife habitats. Another goal is to provide defensible space for communities and developed areas within and surrounding the CNF. With all fire comes smoke, and the U.S. Forest Service works to mitigate smoke impacts from prescribed fires on the communities in the area.