SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA (MPG) - The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is scheduled to conduct an understory burn on approximately 32 acres southeast of Pioneer Trail between Hekpa Drive and Columbine Trail near South Lake Tahoe. Burning will only take place if conditions and weather are favorable and may begin as early as May 23, and may continue through mid-June. Ignitions typically begin at 9 a.m. and smoke will be present. A Fire Information booth will be set up along Pioneer Trail near Jicarilla Drive during active burning with Forest Service personnel on hand to answer questions.

Prescribed fires are a vital forest management tool used to protect neighborhoods and communities by removing excess vegetation (fuels) that can feed unwanted wildland fires. Land managers use different methods to remove fuels including pile, broadcast, and understory burning. Broadcast and understory burning use low-intensity fire to remove fuels under specific environmental conditions with fire confined to predetermined areas.

Historically, low-intensity fires ignited by lightning or native peoples routinely burned throughout the Sierra Nevada. These low-intensity fires burned at low temperatures and moved slowly across the ground removing excess forest debris such as pinecones, needles, limbs, dead and downed trees, and ladder fuels (live or dead vegetation that allows a fire to climb up from the forest floor into the tree canopy.) Watch this Forest Service video for an in-depth explanation of low-intensity fire.

Understory burning mimics these naturally occurring fires that are essential to healthy, fire-adapted ecosystems and benefits forest health by making room for new growth which provides forage for wildlife, recycling nutrients back into the soil and reducing the spread of tree insects and disease.  

View helpful smoke management tips, current air quality index at AirNow, Fire and Smoke Map and the prescribed fire map with project details at Tahoe Living With Fire.