Boyer Road Fuel Break
Summary
SCH Number
2021100433
Public Agency
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
(CAL FIRE)
Document Title
Boyer Road Fuel Break
Document Type
NOE - Notice of Exemption
Received
Posted
10/22/2021
Document Description
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is proposing to extend and maintain the Boyer fuel break that was cleared in 2014 through Boyer Road VMP (RX-South-001-MMU) using engine crews and hand crews with chipper, skid-steer tractor, dozer, and/or tracked masticator. Contracted crews or equipment might also be assigned if special funding is allocated. Dozer, tracked chipper, and crews will only work in shrub and timber fuel types. Grass fuels are not to be treated. Treated fuels may be pile burned, masticated, crushed, or lopped. Shrub and timber fuels to be chipped or piled for burning will be treated within their fuel type, not chipped or piled out in open grasslands. Intermediate and suppressed trees <12” dbh may be thinned. Dead or hazardous trees will be removed along travel routes, edges, or ridges where they are likely to loft embers out of fuel break during a wildfire event.
Boyer Road fuel break is approximately 2.5-mile by 300-foot (106-acre), fuels include grass and shrubland at lower elevations (min. 2,370’msl), oak woodland, and timberlands at the highest elevations (max 3,300’msl). The project is in a rural area of Mariposa County connecting the Bootjack Community Planning Study Area and Lushmeadows Mountain Estates, including portions of 27 parcelsBoyer Road fuel break connects to the Lushmeadows fuel break, and the Lushmeadows fuel break connects to MMU’s Unit-wide strategic fire plan that will extend from TCU to FKU.
Contact Information
Name
Brian Mattos
Agency Name
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Contact Types
Lead/Public Agency
Phone
Email
Location
Counties
Mariposa
Total Acres
106
Other Location Info
Portions of T5S R19E Sec. 22, 23, 24, 25 & 26 MDB&M
Notice of Exemption
Exempt Status
Categorical Exemption
Type, Section or Code
Class 4 § 15304 Minor Alterations to Land
Reasons for Exemption
Within MMU, and statewide, the Department is tasked with increasing acres of land treated and this shaded fuel break will be another step toward achieving that goal. The project meets the requirements of Class 4, §15304(e): Minor Alteration to the Land Categorical Exemption to CEQA. Class 4 includes minor public or private alterations in the conditions of land, water, and/or vegetation which do not involve removal of healthy, mature, and scenic trees except for forestry and agricultural purposes. Field review by CAL FIRE Unit Forester and Environmental Scientist confirmed that no 15300.2. Exceptions apply which would preclude the use of a Notice of Exemption for this project. The activities will not result in the taking of endangered, rare, or threatened plant or animal species, or sedimentation to surface waters. CAL FIRE staff has concluded that no significant environmental impact would occur to aesthetics, agriculture and forestland/timberland, air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, energy, geology and soils, greenhouse gas emissions, hazards and hazardous materials, hydrology and water quality, land use planning, mineral resources, noise, population and housing, public services, recreation, transportation/traffic, utilities and service systems, or wildfire.
Documentation of the environmental review completed by the Department is kept on file at CAL FIRE Mariposa Headquarters at 5366 State Highway 49 North, Mariposa CA 95338.
Attachments
Notice of Exemption
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