A recent public “field day” in the footprint of the 2020 Slater Fire gave locals an on-the-ground look at a small part of the Forest Service’s Slater Fire Disaster Relief Project.
The tour, on Feb. 3, was led by Wild Rivers Ranger District’s Fire Management staff, Grayback Forestry and the Illinois Valley Fire Resiliency Oversight Group (IVFROG).
Community members took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the project from Forest Service representatives.
According to Mike Hackett, Wild Rivers Ranger District Fuels Planner, the goals of the project are to provide protection from wildfire to the community living in wildland-urban interface areas by addressing dense untreated stands.
The 2,437-acre project includes a broad swath of land around Takilma, and includes extensive fuels reduction, piling, and burning. Grayback Forestry is the contractor on the project.
Residents raised questions over potential exposure to smoke during pile-burning.
“We are permitted to burn after abiding by state office Smoke Management Plans and once agency daily clearances are met,” said the acting Fire Management Officer (FMO) for WRRD, Shelly Steiner. Mild winter temperatures were cited as cause for the delay in progress.
Other questions ranged from the feasibility of allowing the community to chip the piles for use as mushroom medium to the possibility of extinguishing the piles with water prior to complete incineration, which creates beneficial biochar and preserves soil health.
For the chipping, Forest Service representatives said they were open to it, but that only some piles were accessible for a chipper, and they didn’t want to create more work for Grayback Forestry if an unpiled mess was left behind.
As far as getting water to the piles, officials said that the logistics of getting the water up hills and the cost of a water tender, which can cost about $1,000 a day, could make that challenging over the huge area of the project.
The Slater Fire scorched thousands of acres of forest five-and-a-half years ago, as it roared over the hill north from Happy Camp on Takilma’s doorstep to threaten the whole Illinois Valley. In many places, the destruction was total. Large trees that help provide seed, habitat, and forest health — which the Forest Service calls “leave trees,” — were obliterated. The area that is now being treated either did not burn or burned in low severity during the Slater Fire.
This project, located in the East Fork Illinois River watershed, focuses on maintaining the abundance of special habitats which remain. With the project, foresters say they aim to improve the health and vigor of the conifer and hardwood trees.
The planned fuels reduction work impacts the communities of Takilma and Sunstar, each with a long history of exercising environmental oversight on planned public land management activities. IVFROG’s origins closely parallel this approach with emphasis on locally led management objectives for public land stewardship.
Carol McBride, Outreach Coordinator for IVFROG, planned the event, and said that Illinois Valley residents can look forward to more field day opportunities. The next is on Sunday, March 22, where a local landowner will demonstrate a fire-resilient silviculture prescription.