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Mammoth Is Interesting

Mammoth's fire abatement program on a 10-to-12 acre site on Sherwin St. in Old Mammoth is nearly complete, town officials said.

The project, which involved a crew of 34 people over the course of the summer and fall, was the first part of a $7 million project designed to protect Mammoth from devastating fires such as the Lake Tahoe Angora Fire last June.

"Old Mammoth is the worst wildland interface area I have ever seen," said Mammoth Fire Chief Brent Harper, "and over the next ten years, the U.S. Forest Service, Mono County and the town will cooperatively spend $7 million to clean up this area."

Capt. Robert Williams of the Mammoth Lakes Fire Department (MLFD) was in charge of the project and will continue to lead the multi-agency teams in the future.

"We still have some more fuels reduction work to complete next spring," Williams said of the Sherwin St. project, "and we will then monitor the property in the years to come."

The cost for fuels reduction, according to Harper, can range from $1,000 - $4,000 per acre. The Sherwin Street Project was on the low-end of the scale, thanks to both CAL FIRE and G.C. Forest Products, he said.

Mammoth resident Greg Cook and his crew from G.C. Forest Products were contracted to perform fuels reduction on the first seven to eight acres, and the MLFD seasonal crew, along with inmates from CAL FIRE Bishop, at only $200 a day, cleaned up the remaining acres.

Fuels management or reduction, involves thinning the forest by anywhere from 25 to 75 percent. This is accomplished by cutting down dead or smaller trees, removing low hanging limbs or branches, and chipping and spreading the remains on the forest floor.

Next summer, the MLFD, in partnership with the USFS, will direct its fuels management efforts to the 100 – 120 acres above the Valentine Reserve, Mill City and Panorama Dome area to create a defensible fire break.

According to the Healthy Forest Initiative, an initiative for wildfire prevention and stronger communities, "Pine forests a century ago may have had some 25 mature trees per acre, and be easily traversed on horseback or by a horse-drawn wagon. Today, the same forest may have more than 1,000 trees on the same acre, creating a huge reservoir of fuel awaiting ignition."

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