The following is a press release issued by the Mendocino National Forest
Kristen Sexton, Acting Forest Supervisor for the Mendocino National Forest, has issued a draft decision notice with a finding of no significant impact for the North Shore restoration project’s environmental assessment.
The purpose of the project is to improve community wildfire safety by reducing fuels within the wildland urban interface while also restoring and reforesting burned areas from the 2018 Ranch Fire. The project area is located in Lake County, about 11 miles southeast of Upper Lake, Calif., near communities on the north and northeast shores of Clear Lake.
Sexton has selected Alternative 6 (modified Alternative 3). The decision would allow for reforestation on just over 2,600 acres located on the Upper Lake Ranger District in areas that experienced high levels of tree mortality during the 2018 Ranch Fire. The project includes fuels reduction treatments on approximately 40,000 acres. Those treatments could include prescribed burning, pile burning, hand thinning and mechanical treatment on areas with slopes less than 35%.
Alternative 6 also recognizes that salvage sales are not economically feasible and herbicide use will be limited to research plots only.
Forest officials issued a legal notice in the Chico Enterprise Record announcing the opportunity to file an objection to the decision within 45 days.
Objections can be filed by mail, fax or email to the reviewing officer: USDA Forest Service, Jennifer Eberlien, Regional Forester, 1323 Club Drive, Vallejo, CA 94592, Attn: North Shore Restoration Project; fax (707-562-9229); or email to objections-pacificsouthwest-regional-office@usda.gov with subject: North Shore Restoration Project. Formats that will be accepted for electronically submitted comments are: .doc, .pdf, .rtf, or .txt. The objection period ends at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, June 27, 2022. Additional instructions for submitting objections can be found in the legal notice and on the project website.
The environmental assessment, finding of no significant impact, draft decision notice and supporting documentation are available online at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=55716.
