Carol Kuczora was on her routine stroll through Empire Mine State Park recently when she came across a field of flattened and crushed manzanita the size of "six or seven football fields."

"All the giant manzanita and small trees had been crushed flat, and of the hundreds of remaining trees, at least half of them were marked for cutting," she said. While the clearing and proposed logging were not being done on park land, Kuczora said she was surprised that she hadn't heard about it.

"I know there are limits to what can be done - what is proposed has to be approved by some public body, somebody has to deal with endangered species and erosion," she said.

Kuczora's surprise has been shared by many walkers along the park's Hardrock Trail, from which it is easy to see the privately owned 40-acre project.

The highly visible effort, part wildfire suppression and part logging, has become one of the first battlegrounds in what could be a long-running Nevada County debate over where fire prevention ends and clear-cutting begins.

Pete Walden - the forester hired by property owners John and Loretta Flaherty to help with the project - said that, frankly, he was surprised he hadn't heard from the public, considering the visibility of a proposed timber harvest project.

He said that what Kuczora witnessed during her walk was brush clearing, and it was primarily being done to reduce fire danger. The logging plan for the site has yet to receive final approval from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and no major trees had been felled yet.

Clearing out highly flammable brush such as manzanita is encouraged by state fire officials, so long as it doesn't rise to the level of timber harvesting.

"People can clean up their property anytime they want. We don't want to discourage people from taking care of their property," said CDF Forester Don Mackenzie.

But the project still has stirred up deep-rooted sentiments by some residents who believe the environment is being injured in order to save it from future fire danger.

Ecologist Virginia Moran, whose own home burned down in the San Diego fires a few years ago, believes the clearing project near Empire Mine is just one example of how some residents are taking the county's fire plan too far.

She has launched an effort to alert the community to what she refers to as "hyperactive clearing," saying that people forget that local wildlife rely on it for habitat.

"Instead of clearing adjacent to homes, people are now hyperactively clearing their whole acreage, up to 40 acres or higher. This is an overreaction, and if these folks think all this destruction is going to prevent their homes from burning down, they live in a dream world," she wrote in a recent letter to elected officials.

The 40-acre logging project is in the process of being approved by the CDF - the correct procedure when a resident wants to harvest timber - and is still open to public comment.

The Flahertys were also required to give notice to neighbors living within 300 feet and to post a public notice at the Rood Administrative Center in Nevada City.

On Friday, there was no notice for this specific project posted, and county staff members said they did not have a copy of the plan.

John Flaherty did have a "pre-harvest" meeting with Mackenzie, Walden, and Empire Mine State Park forester Rich Adams about a month ago. Logging can be done anytime after the plan is approved, and it is expected to begin in a few months.

Because the clearing will help protect the state park from fire danger, both Mackenzie and Adams said they were happy the Flahertys were doing the brush clearing work, even though it is not required,

"The park is concerned about aesthetics and fire hazards," Adams said, explaining that the law allows the park to give recommendations for the 200 feet that border it. The park has specific concerns partially because a section of the popular Hardrock Trail runs close to the property.

Empire Mine forester Adams said the plan is to remove most of the large trees - a form of harvesting that allows for the growth of smaller ones.

A deal was struck that would help preserve density nearer to the park, among other things, and Adams acknowledged that "it is private property and it just can't be managed like a park."

But for at least the next year or more, when Kuczora takes her routine walk along the part of the trail that borders the Flaherty property, the sight will be a similar one.

"(One year from now) it won't look that much different as far as the manzanita, but (there will be) less conifers," said Walden, the property owners' forester. But in the long run, he said, "it makes it look great after it is done because it was such a fire hazard."