While the League evaluates many projects for their impacts to Tahoe’s forests, the following are a few projects that we’ve worked on in the past few years that focused primarily on forest health. For information on more current forest health projects, check our Advocacy and Monitoring campaigns page.
Fire Planning
In 2004, fire districts around the Lake developed community wildfire protection plans which aimed to lessen the threat of crown fires in the forests that border Lake Tahoe’s communities. Among the plan components are fuel reduction treatments, community evacuation plans, and design standards to make homes and property fire safe. The League was involved in the development of the plans, attending planning meetings and submitting comments. We worked to ensure the projects will achieve the objective of making our forest more resistant to a crown fire without harming water quality and wildlife habitat. The need to remove dead, dying, and small diameter trees must be balanced with continued protection of sensitive areas and the Lake itself.
Ward Fuel Hazard Reduction Plan
The US Forest Service released an revised plan to perform forest thinning projects in the Ward Canyon area in 2002. Their original plan allowed for the removal of trees up to 19” in diameter, but when the Forest Service revised their plans to allow removal of trees up to 24’ in diameter, the League raised a number of questions and concerns. Click here to read about our views on forest health in general.
