Parts of Tuolumne River park are thickets of wildfire fuel. Chainsaws get to work
Modesto firefighters have taken up chainsaws and other tools to reduce wildfire fuel in Tuolumne River Regional Park.
The work is concentrated in a lightly visited zone between Mitchell Road and the east end of Mary E. Grogan Grove. Crews have been pruning oaks and other native trees, while removing non-natives, such as tree of heaven, that are especially flammable.
The project also involves controlled burning in spots to mimic the frequent fires that used to clear the undergrowth. Experts say a century-plus of suppressing these flames has contributed to the massive blazes in California and elsewhere. The Tuolumne watershed in the central Sierra Nevada been especially hard hit.
“It’s going to make the park healthier, and it’s going to make it safer for our firefighters and the community,” Fire Chief Alan Ernst said in a Facebook video.
Beware of smoldering debris
The work is largely finished, but visitors should watch out for burned tree limbs that continued to smolder as of Saturday afternoon.
The regional park is made up of several sites along a seven-mile stretch of the Tuolumne from Mitchell to Carpenter Road. The fuel reduction is in and near the Legion Park section, where people enjoy hiking, picnics, rowboats and other low-key fun.
Agencies have contended over the years with fires from homeless camps and other sources in the park. So far in 2020, they have required 140 hours of response time by the Modesto and Ceres departments and the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District. Each requires an average four hours.
Keeping future blazes on the ground
Ernst said the project has reduced the “ladder fuels” that can turn a grass fire into one that consumes brush and trees. This could reduce the average response time on future calls to 30 to 40 minutes.
The work also will protect homes in the airport neighborhood of Modesto and in north Ceres.
The department did the controlled burning under a permit from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. That agency regulates sources of smoke but could do little about the pall cast by record wildfires in California this year.
This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
