District Supervisor Anaiah Kirk

Board of Supervisors meeting information and to subscribe for agenda updates:

https://www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov/745/Board-Meetings

Fire and Forest Management Update, July 2023:

The county has been making historic investments the Tuolumne County Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Services (OES).  We are forging ahead under the Master Stewardship Agreement (MSA) and the relationship with Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions (YSS) to drive the SERAL project.  The Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape (SERAL) is the biggest forest restoration project in the Stanislaus history bringing many people together to address forest management and keep our communities safe. Environmentalist, business community, local farmers, the US Forest Service and your local government just to name a few are doing this together. This project is over 118,000 acres, stretching from Sonora and Columbia, though Cedar Ridge, Twain Harte and Long Barn to Pinecrest and Strawberry. Within the SERAL boundaries, folks are working with mechanical thinning, timber harvest and prescribed fire. The smoke you may have noticed was from spring and early summer prescribed fires within the SERAL project.

During the prescribed fires, several people called and complained about the smoke: “Why do they need to be burning? It’s just going to burn eventually in the summer when we get a wildfire” one person said. My answer: better to smell a little smoke from preventative fires now than to experience a mega fire which would completely destroy the ecosystem and possibly a large number of homes. After explaining the pros and cons, everyone agrees: burn when the conditions are appropriate.  Of course there are certain times of the year (summer or during droughts) where uncontrolled burns such as those started from lighting strikes cannot go uncontrolled and must be put out to prevent that fire from quickly getting out of control.

Between the current SERAL project and phase two (SERAL 2.0) and many other private and BLM land projects, the Rim fire footprint, and CAL FIRE fuel breaks, Tuolumne County is building a horseshoe of fire protection. In the event of a mega fire, these fuel reduction efforts should provide significant protection to our communities. It will also protect our natural resources, support our local economy and attract more investment to our natural resource industry.

Together, we are witnessing history in the making in our own backyard. Only a handful of projects throughout the nation are receiving this type of funding and attention that Tuolumne County is.  It’s a big deal. When you have time, take a drive-up Highway 108, when you pass Alicia’s Sugar Shack, look down the canyon to the left. Follow the highway all the way past Strawberry. You will notice thinning, prescribe burn areas and piles of logs which will be used for biomass. What you can see is just a small portion of the work taking place.

Finally, as we talk about creating a safe circle or (horseshoe) around Tuolumne County, I want you to know the dots need to be connected from this incredible work to fire insurance rates. Why is none of this work in creating safe communities being taken into consideration with fire insurance? That is a question our board is dedicating itself to getting answers to.