Thornburg/Shokouh Fuels Reduction Project

The project is located within the community of Markleeville, California. The project area is comprised of an 80 acre treatment area consisting of two private landowner parcels, each ~ 40 acres in Markleevillage of eastern Alpine County. The Thornburg property is located at 79 Sawmill Road, and the Shokouh property is located at 235 Pinion Road. The project areas are dominated by native sagebrush habitat of California Wildlife Habitat Relationship (CWHR) size class varies, and fire damaged conifers that range from 4-14” DBH. The proposed project will reduce the continuity of sagebrush and hazard trees in an effort to reduce hazardous fuel loading and arrangement such that the flame length, intensity, rate of spread, and duration of potential wildfire is reduced. The proposed project will 1) Utilize mechanical mastication to reduce the extent of sagebrush on site, targeting 70% of the sage for mastication, 2) leave remaining sagebrush in a discontinuous, mosaic fashion 30% for habitat which will not contribute to horizontal or vertical fuels, 3) off-haul and/or chip/mulch debris in the masticated zones to retain soil moisture and aid in fire resilience. lop and scatter of nominal dead and dying conifers through hand operations with assistance from machinery, and 4) deck/remove hand felled or mechanical logging of 4” to 14” DBH conifers present within the project area and limb remaining trees to a minimum height of 10 feet as measured from the lowest live green limb to the top of the surface fuels. Any riparian species on the Shokouh property will be retained and left unaltered. Conifer Snags 16”+ DBH and over 20 feet tall shall be retained at a minimum rate of 2 per acre where they exist in the preharvest stand provided they do not pose a safety risk during and following operations. The desired, post treatment stand conditions will not contribute to initiating or sustaining a crown fire and will have projected flame lengths of less than 2-4 feet in the surface fuels, with increased resilience to wildfire. The resulting stand would appear well thinned with the primary carrier of the fire being leaves and/or grasses. The proposed action will effectively reduce hazardous fuels within the project area.