Napa Firewise Goat Fuels Management Project

Napa Firewise Goat Fuels Management Project

Approximately 250 acres will be treated to reduce the fuel loading, create a shaded fuelbreak, and to increase the defensible space around structures and other improvements to reduce the threat from wildland fires. Crews and goats will be used to meet the treatment objectives specific to each treatment area. Goats, 250 to 500, will be rotated through treatment areas to achieve the proper amount of surface fuel (grass and small shrubs) reduction without damaging small trees and larger vegetation. Hand crews will be used for brush and ladder fuel removal. Fuel loading created by the crews will be pile burned under prescribed weather conditions and only on permitted burn days. The fuel reduction will prevent an ignition from becoming a large damaging fire and also serve to protect the communities of Angwin, Deer Park, and Tucker Farms from an encroaching wildfire. All of the proposed treatment areas are grass, oak/grass woodland, and grass underneath pine trees. Grass would be the primary carrier of fire through the areas without associated torching or a sustained crown fire. However, the areas have become overgrown, shade tolerant species have prospered, and open meadows have been encroached. This has created an increased fire hazard, and would allow a fire to torch trees or make a sustained run in the crowns. Residences and structures are located alongside the vegetation, and the areas are "textbook" wildland/urban interface (WUI).

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