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The Nevada County supervisors will be asked Tuesday to send a letter to Rep. Tom McClintock asking him to continue to push a bill to thin California's forests to protect them from runaway wildfire.
The county has 218,000 acres of federal land that are “at least 10 times as dense as their historic structure, choked with unnatural fuel loads that render the forest unhealthy and vulnerable to catastrophic fire and present an overwhelming threat to public safety in wildland-urban interface areas,” career firefighter and Board of Supervisors Chairman Hank Weston wrote in documents to fellow supervisors.
The bill co-sponsored by McClintock, the area Republican congressman, would have local communities identify thinning projects needed on public lands that would halt fire danger to nearby watersheds and communities.
The California Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act also asks for less-stringent environmental assessments of the project to avoid delays and expense.
Enacting the bill would allow California counties to work with professional land managers and fire experts to “manage federal lands in their backyard and protect themselves in the face of inaction from the federal government or the delay tactics of outside environmental fringe groups,” according to the bill's summary.
The board also will consider turning over $43,000 in federal forest reserve funds to the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County for wildfire suppression projects.
The county has 218,000 acres of federal land that are “at least 10 times as dense as their historic structure, choked with unnatural fuel loads that render the forest unhealthy and vulnerable to catastrophic fire and present an overwhelming threat to public safety in wildland-urban interface areas,” career firefighter and Board of Supervisors Chairman Hank Weston wrote in documents to fellow supervisors.
The bill co-sponsored by McClintock, the area Republican congressman, would have local communities identify thinning projects needed on public lands that would halt fire danger to nearby watersheds and communities.
The California Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act also asks for less-stringent environmental assessments of the project to avoid delays and expense.
Enacting the bill would allow California counties to work with professional land managers and fire experts to “manage federal lands in their backyard and protect themselves in the face of inaction from the federal government or the delay tactics of outside environmental fringe groups,” according to the bill's summary.
The board also will consider turning over $43,000 in federal forest reserve funds to the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County for wildfire suppression projects.
