Stumpfield Fuel Break Maintenance (SNC 1814)

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) would provide funding to the Mariposa Fire Safe Council (MFSC) to maintain an existing shaded fuelbreak in a very high severity fire risk zone originally permitted and funded by CAL FIRE in 2019. The project involves maintaining an existing strategic fuelbreak that extends approximately 3 linear miles along an established road corridor. Vegetation treatment will occur within 150 feet of the road centerline. Hand crews will remove dead and downed material and regrowth up to 10” in diameter, and chip or remove slash. Vegetation treatment will be performed exclusively using chainsaws, hand tools, and portable woodchippers. No off-road heavy equipment, tracked or wheeled machinery, masticators, bulldozers, or excavators will be used. Chippers and support vehicles will remain on existing roadways or previously disturbed surfaces. Work will occur within the existing 192-acre fuel break footprint. A cultural monitor from the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation will be on call during this project to protect known archeological sites. Maintaining this fuelbreak is critical for firefighter access and staging to fight wildfire.