Prescribed Fire Prep
Inland Empire Corpsmember Maxine Zendejas carries a tree limb across steep terrain to spread woody debris out away from live trees ahead of a prescribed burn.
Protecting people and property with McLeods, rock rakes, and chain saws. For weeks now, it’s what Inland Empire Center Corpsmembers have been doing. With their lunches, water, and personal protective equipment strapped to their backs, they hike up and down steep terrain in Mount San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness.
“I may not be a firefighter, but I can do my part in my community,” said Corpsmember Noemi Cervantes.
Firefighters they are not, but here is where the plot thickens, they’re still helping to reduce the threat and impact of catastrophic wildfires by completing plot preparation for an upcoming 45-acre prescribed burn.
“We’re creating fire rings around the trees,” said Corpsmember Nichollas Salcedo. “So, when they do the prescribed burn, the fire will spread over the grassland and not ignite the trees.”
WATCH
Corpsmembers are removing ladder fuels and preventing tree crowning during a prescribed fire in an area of the park near the Thousand Trails Campground in the community of Pine Cove near Idyllwild.
Using pole saws and chain saws, Corpsmembers are removing low hanging branches. These are called ladder fuels and by removing them the threat of fire—prescribed or wild—climbing up into the tree canopy or crown is significantly reduced.
“If there are any logs found around the trees we’re placing them in open areas,” explained Corpsmember Maxine Zendejas. “We don’t want these giant fires.”
Neither does State Parks. Mount San Jacinto State Park has been working on approximately 265 acres of mixed coniferous forest to improve the forest’s health and resiliency to catastrophic wildfires. The project work has been completed in phases. Previous phases included thinning in areas.
According to CAL FIRE’s historical fire data, the area Corpsmembers have been working has no recorded wildfire history. The area called Marion Ridge on the northern part of Pine Cove has certainly been under threat.
The closest fire to this region happend in 1914, where the U.S. Forest Service reported a 3,951 acre fire. In 1996, the Bee #2 Fire burned 10,000 acres and came within three miles of the ridge. The 2018 Cranston Fire, which burned 13,229 acres, is the most recent fire to encroach on the communities of Pine Cove, Idyllwild, and Fern Valley.
Clearing The Way
Clearing piles of vegetation away from larger fuel sources will ensure the prescribed burn removes overgrown and dead vegetation while keeping thriving trees alive and well.
The signficant damage a wildfire can cause is not lost on these Corpsmembers. Many on the crew were dispatched to the damage zone following January’s Palisades Fire to help protect area watersheds.
“The whole devastation of the Palisades Fire, you feel a little bit helpless in a sense,” Cervantes said. “Now that I’m actually doing something to prevent fires it gives you encouragement to keep going.”
Added Zendejas, “It really motivates you. Keeping that in mind motivates you and makes you say, ‘We really have to do a good job here.'”
