Site search
sponsored by
News
Opinion
ENLARGE
Scott Tyler, professor of geological studies and engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, and postdoctoral researcher Christine Hatch, work to reel in 400-feet of fiber optic cable Wednesday morning on the land near Tracy Court and Tyner Way where the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District had planned a 20-acre prescribed burn.
NORTH SHORE LAKE TAHOE - Weather conditions in the Lake Tahoe Basin over the past few months have hampered the efforts of local fire agencies to perform controlled burns on excess vegetation.
“The weather has slowed us down because it’s been so dry,” said Kit Bailey, fire management officer for the U.S. Forest Service in the basin. “It’s always hard to get perfect, optimal conditions and without a little rain or snow here or there we actually haven’t gotten great conditions. We didn’t get to burn as much as we’d like to.”
Understory burns, to which Bailey was referring, removes vegetation from the forest floor as it creeps between trees. A lack of ground vegetation leaves less fuel for a potential wildland fire.
Bailey’s statement that the basin is missing out on optimal conditions was verified Wednesday when the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District canceled a planned controlled burn in the area of Tracy Court and Tyner Way.
Fuels Division Chief Norb Szczurek said the burn was canceled because of bad weather conditions — an inversion — which would have kept the smoke low in the basin, prohibiting it from safely blowing out.
“In order to be sensitive to the community, we had to cancel the burn,” Szczurek said. “The lack of snow has given us a longer window to burn, but weather conditions didn’t cooperate.”
Szczurek said an oncoming winter storm this weekend may make understory burning impossible because low-lying ground fuels will be covered with snow.
“We’d like to try to get that burn done,” Szczurek said, referring to the 20-acre Tracy/Tyner burn. “But, with the storm coming in, I don’t know if that will be possible.”
Szczurek said the district generally aims to burn 100 understory acres each year, falling short of that mark this year with the cancellation of the Tracy/Tyler burn by 15 acres, leaving the 2008 total at 85 acres.
Bailey said basin-wide the Forest Service has had a pretty good year, burning roughly 550 acres between the California and Nevada sides of the lake since Oct. 1.
UNR study on hold
Scott Tyler, a professor in geological studies and engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, planned to test a new study technique at this week’s Tracy/Tyner controlled burn. However, because the burn was canceled, so too was his experiment.
His study involved laying 400 feet of fiber-optic cable in the area of the burn.
“We’re hoping that when we lay this we could measure the soil temperature, which is important because we can see what nutrients are burning off,” Tyler said.
He hoped the cable, which is supposed to report a temperature recording once every 10 minutes from each yard, would tell scientists and fire officials what exactly controlled burns do. Tyler said it would be valuable to see how fast nitrogen — a key ingredient for re-growing plants — burns out of the soil.
The cable would need to withstand temperatures of 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, Tyler estimated.
“As long as it doesn’t stay too hot for too long, we’ll be all right,” Tyler said.
The experiment is temporarily on hold.
“The weather has slowed us down because it’s been so dry,” said Kit Bailey, fire management officer for the U.S. Forest Service in the basin. “It’s always hard to get perfect, optimal conditions and without a little rain or snow here or there we actually haven’t gotten great conditions. We didn’t get to burn as much as we’d like to.”
Understory burns, to which Bailey was referring, removes vegetation from the forest floor as it creeps between trees. A lack of ground vegetation leaves less fuel for a potential wildland fire.
Bailey’s statement that the basin is missing out on optimal conditions was verified Wednesday when the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District canceled a planned controlled burn in the area of Tracy Court and Tyner Way.
Fuels Division Chief Norb Szczurek said the burn was canceled because of bad weather conditions — an inversion — which would have kept the smoke low in the basin, prohibiting it from safely blowing out.
“In order to be sensitive to the community, we had to cancel the burn,” Szczurek said. “The lack of snow has given us a longer window to burn, but weather conditions didn’t cooperate.”
Szczurek said an oncoming winter storm this weekend may make understory burning impossible because low-lying ground fuels will be covered with snow.
“We’d like to try to get that burn done,” Szczurek said, referring to the 20-acre Tracy/Tyner burn. “But, with the storm coming in, I don’t know if that will be possible.”
Szczurek said the district generally aims to burn 100 understory acres each year, falling short of that mark this year with the cancellation of the Tracy/Tyler burn by 15 acres, leaving the 2008 total at 85 acres.
Bailey said basin-wide the Forest Service has had a pretty good year, burning roughly 550 acres between the California and Nevada sides of the lake since Oct. 1.
UNR study on hold
Scott Tyler, a professor in geological studies and engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, planned to test a new study technique at this week’s Tracy/Tyner controlled burn. However, because the burn was canceled, so too was his experiment.
His study involved laying 400 feet of fiber-optic cable in the area of the burn.
“We’re hoping that when we lay this we could measure the soil temperature, which is important because we can see what nutrients are burning off,” Tyler said.
He hoped the cable, which is supposed to report a temperature recording once every 10 minutes from each yard, would tell scientists and fire officials what exactly controlled burns do. Tyler said it would be valuable to see how fast nitrogen — a key ingredient for re-growing plants — burns out of the soil.
The cable would need to withstand temperatures of 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, Tyler estimated.
“As long as it doesn’t stay too hot for too long, we’ll be all right,” Tyler said.
The experiment is temporarily on hold.
