Throughout California and northwest Nevada, the Bureau of Land Management is taking an aggressive and coordinated approach to speed up fuels reduction programs on public lands with a high wildfire risk. The BLM claims that 46 counties are better protected thanks to statewide environmental study.
BLM officials said that after today’s signing of the Statewide Wildland-Urban Interface Fuels Treatment Programmatic Environmental Assessment, efforts to safeguard human settlements, lessen the likelihood of catastrophic wildfires, and enhance the vitality of forests will be streamlined.
“This plan helps reduce the intensity, severity and spread of wildfire near communities that border public lands managed by the BLM,” said BLM California State Director Karen E. Mouritsen. “Through partnerships with local and state agencies we will prioritize and coordinate fuels treatments to protect people, property and vital infrastructure.”
To get the best benefits for communities, this strategy calls for coordinating fuels treatment projects across land ownerships to form a landscape-level network of strategic fuels treatments and breaks within the wildland-urban interface. Across 930,000 acres of public property, the Statewide Wildland-Urban Interface Fuels Treatment Programmatic Environmental Assessment analyzed many factors.
.@BLMca signed a Decision Record to streamline #FuelsReduction projects on 930,000 acres of #publiclands throughout California and NW Nevada, near rural communities with high wildfire risk. Learn more: https://t.co/Pc64ofD2pl #WeAreBLMFire #PartnershipsMatter https://t.co/9K9mzGM5AG
— Bureau of Land Management Fire (@BLMFire) August 8, 2023
The new streamlined fuels treatment plans will allow for on-the-ground work to begin in a couple of months as communities and the BLM identify wildfire problems. As a result, we’ll be able to treat an extra 20,000 acres of public land each year.
In California, the plan extends to the following areas: Lassen, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joa As early as this upcoming fall, work can get underway on program-related projects.