Lushmeadows Ladder Fuels Project Phase II

The Lushmeadows Ladder Fuels Phase II Project (“Project”) is approximately 9 miles east of the unincorporated community of Mariposa in Mariposa County. This project will treat approximately 160 acres of privately-owned land (around which CEQA investigations have been conducted within an approximate 300’ buffer area) near Darrah, CA and west of the Sierra National Forest. Multiple and recent past wildfires have wreaked havoc in Mariposa County; the County has an EXTREME risk of wildfire over the next 30 years. The unaltered project area understory is choked with brush and logs (remnants of the Western Pine Beetle infestation) with dense ladder fuels that extend into Ponderosa pine, Incense cedar, and Black oak. The project will protect hundreds of structures in the Lushmeadows subdivision and adjacent properties via treatment methods of mastication for the initial treatment and prescribed burning for project maintenance. The Lushmeadows area is a Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) subdivision located in the foothills of Mariposa County at ~3,300’ elevation. This part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is generally privately-owned and is west of the USFS Sierra National Forest and southwest of Yosemite National Park. From a fire protection viewpoint, the Lushmeadows project is the second phase of vegetative treatment to protect the property and resources in the general Lushmeadows subdivision. The project area vegetation is mixed Sierra montane conifer with a hardwood component of Black oak and Live oak. In the understory are shrubs/brush heavy to toyon and ceanothus species with grasses in openings. Due to past droughts and beetle activity, mortality is high in the pines; many snags and downed logs exist in the project area. Management goals include restoring forest species composition and structure following large scale, stand-replacing disturbance events such as quick-moving fires or slow-moving insect outbreaks and prevention of catastrophic wildfire. The Lushmeadows Ladder Fuels Phase II Project follows the initial (Phase I) treatment in 2024. Treatment methods include mechanical and manual mastication, and prescribed fire. Once implementation work on the project is completed, the goal is to maintain the treated area into perpetuity under the current CEQA document.