San Andreas Ballpark

The San Andreas Ballpark Project proposes fuel reduction treatments across approximately five acres surrounding the CAL FIRE Tuolumne–Calaveras Unit Service Center and approximately 25 acres within Alex Quinones Community Park. The project area is located within the community of San Andreas, Calaveras County, along Mountain Ranch Road and Pope Street. Alex Quinones Community Park provides recreational opportunities for residents of Calaveras County, including baseball fields, a disc golf course, and horseshoe pits. The CAL FIRE Service Center and the community park are situated within a grass–oak woodland vegetation type. The project will implement a combination of manual and mechanical vegetation treatment methods in preparation for broadcast burning. Broadcast burning will be used to reduce hazardous fuel loads, manage vegetative overgrowth, and control invasive plant species. Fuels may also be treated through hand piling, pile burning, and chipping. Hand piles will be chipped or burned, and remaining wood debris may be treated through broadcast burning during appropriate burn windows. Chips may be spread on site to a maximum depth of 6 inches. Ladder fuels will be reduced, and trees will be pruned up to a height of up to 12 feet. Ground based equipment will include tracked and/or wheeled chippers. Dozers may be used to construct containment lines during prescribed fire operations as well as for installing erosion control and performing other maintenance where needed. Future maintenance may include prescribed broadcast burning, and limited mechanical or hand treatments as needed, within the same project footprint using the treatment methods described above. The project area is adjacent to Mark Twain Hospital, multiple residential subdivisions, and other high-risk assets within Calaveras County. Implementation of the San Andreas Ballpark Project will reduce wildfire risk to the community of San Andreas and protect nearby values at risk, including critical infrastructure and residential areas.