TAFIC Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project V

The Timberview Area Firewise Improvement Council (TAFIC) is an active Firewise Community located in the Central Sierra foothills. The TAFIC community consists of 55 parcels including 45 homes spread across 280 acres surrounded on three sides by Sierra National Forest (SNF) land. Phase V of this Project will treat an alternative 35 acres within the same 280-acre boundary to previous phases of the project to remove hazardous fuels that endanger residences and the surrounding forest. The Project area is located on approximately 35 acres west of Teaford Saddle Road in the North Fork area of Madera County at an elevation of approximately 3,500 msl. The Project will occur on private rural residential lands. The Fuel Reduction Project will also help maintain two miles of roadsides, driveways, and an access road for emergency vehicles. The Project will also finish a 100' - 200' shaded fuel break along County Rd. 223 between the Timberview and Sierra Highlands subdivision. The Project area vegetation was primarily pine, cedar and oak woodland with shrubs, and grasslands and 80-90% of the pines were lost to the bark beetle. There will be both types of mastication as in the previous phases of the fuel reduction CAL FIRE Project. All hazardous fuels will be masticated or chipped for erosion protection and to facilitate greenhouse emission limitations. Mechanical mastication would be utilized to chip, grind, and shred vegetation on site and manual mastication would be used to remove dead fall on the ground, by chipping, hand cutting, and some piling. The vegetation community can recover quickly from mastication treatment, which is necessary due to the bark beetle. No live trees will be cut or removed, only underbrush. No burning will occur in the Project site. There are seasonal creeks in the area, but none of them will be disturbed. An equipment exclusion zone (EEZ) of 25-50 feet has been incorporated into the Project.