Pepperwood Preserve Vegetation Management Project

Pepperwood Preserve Vegetation Management Project

Pepperwood Preserve is a 3,117-acre mosaic of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests, oak (Quercus spp.) woodland, mixed hardwood forests, chaparral, and open grasslands. The Preserve supports over lack of low-intensity understory fires over the past century and minimal human or grazing activity. Small Douglas-firs have survived In the shade of oak forests to create an understory layer that could rapidly transfer a ground fire to the upper crowns of the dominant trees, likely resulting in stand replacement in the event of a wildfire. Pepperwood Preserve is actively treating forest understories across the property using hand crews to reduce ladder fuels and to pile and burn much of the dead and down material. As the Preserve completes this preliminary treatment in the forested areas, CAL FIRE will conduct understory prescribed burning activities to further reduce fuels and promote oak regeneration. The optimal time burn these forested understories is in fall, winter or spring when some rain has occurred to the point of dampening the fuels and surrounding area, but has not completely saturated fuels. Damp vegetation will aid in keeping fire behavior to a minimum, while still allowing high levels of fuel consumption when fuels are not saturated. Burn unit interiors will be ignited by drip torches and fusees. Firing will begin at the top of burn units and proceed down slope until a black line is created and the fire front has been sufficiently established to result in target fuel consumption. Test burns will be conducted on each burn day and will be located in a representative location within the project area. The test burn will be adequately sized to determine whether or not the project burn is feasible under ambient temperature, humidity and wind conditions, if smoke dispersal and direction are acceptable and within planned constraints, if fuel consumption is adequate to meet objectives, and if fire behavior will produce results within acceptable parameters. If the test burn does not produce the desired fire behavior, the fire will be suppressed and prescribed burning will not occur until conditions become favorable.

Santa Rosa

Sonoma