Rick Hopson giving his presentation
Our meeting on 02-may-2017 at Turtle Rock Park was well attended with 19 members of the public and agencies present.
Rick Hopson, Amador District Ranger, gave a presentation on the Caples Ecological Restoration Project which is in the Caples Creek watershed in parts of Alpine, Amador and El Dorado counties. The project will include about 8,800 acres of prescribed burning over the next few years. To a significant extent the project is happening due to excellent collaboration between various agencies and NGOs.
The West Carson Project Working Group has been making progress on what economic activity can benefit from the West Carson Project. Discussions centered on a possible firewood business and/or heart-of-center timber. There is possible interest by the Washoe Tribe in these businesses, but there still are many questions to be answered including where the businesses would be located. About twenty acres are needed and the BLM will be approached about possible locations.
The Alpine Biomass Committee is sponsoring Alyson Cheney to attend the SCALE (Sierra to California All Lands Enhancement) workshop in Sacramento. Alyson is an AmeriCorps intern working with the Alpine Watershed Group. The workshop is sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region, the National Forest Foundation, and the Sierra Institute for Community and Environment to advance peer learning, all-lands management, and capacity-building of community-based and other collaborative forest management groups in California.
Participant updates included the following. The CHIPS/Washoe Crew is being reconstituted and some of the new members will be from Carson City. The USFS Carson Ranger District is close to finalizing an agreement with CHIPS. Teresa McClung is now the Acting Forest Supervisor of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit while Forest Supervisor Jeff Marsolais has been seconded to the Region 5 office. CHIPS reported that their proposed biomass-to-bioenergy facility in Wilseyville is number three in the queue and that they have several prospective developers interested in partnering with them. The current offer to buy such power is $0.13787/Kwh which nobody is taking up.
The next meeting is set for Tuesday June 6th at 6:00 pm at Turtle Rock Park. Craig Thomas of the Sierra Forest Legacy will be making a presentation.
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The Alpine Biomass Committee is supported by a grant from the National Forest Foundation with funds coming from Region 5 of the U.S. Forest Service. This organization is an equal opportunity provider.
Alpine Biomass Collaborative 