Prescribed Fire Planned Near Sunny Slopes/Tom’s Place

As weather conditions permit, the White Mountain Ranger District of the Inyo National Forest will complete prescribed fire projects at sites located along the Highway 395 corridor near Sunny Slopes and Tom’s Place this spring. These prescribed fire units are east of Sunny Slopes and Crowley Lake, near Casa Diablo Mountain, and are in the Jeffrey pine/sage/pinyon pine fuel types. The units are broken up into approximately 150 acre components to allow crews to use roads and other features for containment objectives and to limit smoke impacts near communities. Crews are planning to start on April 1, targeting 50 acres, and will continue over the next month as conditions allow. Much of these units are under snow or patchy snow at this time.

Fire crews will take advantage the significant winter and snow that has created conditions ideal to safely complete this project. The primary purpose of the burning is to reduce hazardous fuels for the nearby developed areas as well as to restore fire-adapted ecosystem conditions. Smoke will be visible at times from Highway 395 as well as from nearby communities. It may settle into down-valley communities in the evening.

Prior to burning, much consideration goes into current and forecasted wind direction to divert much of the smoke from communities and recreation sites.The Inyo National Forest works closely with the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District to select days that will provide good smoke dispersal.