Poor Boy Ridge Tour, 29-April photo by Annie Dean
Our meeting on May 7th 2019 at Turtle Rock Park was attended by 24 members of the public and agencies. The meeting featured a robust discussion on fuels reduction to protect Markleeville, Markleevillage, and the Hot Springs Road corridor. There was also some preliminary discussion on possible projects in the Woodfords area and Mesa Vista.
RCDI Spring Workshop: The Sierra Institute is sponsoring its final Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) workshop on May 29th, 2019, in Jackson, CA. This is a good opportunity to meet with and learn from other forest collaboratives. The draft agenda is located here, and registration is available here. It will be followed by the Sierra Institute’s SCALE conference on May 30th and 31st at the same location.
Scoping Study Update: The Request for Proposals was submitted to five (now six) consultants that had indicate that they were interested in submitting a proposal. The deadline for submitting proposals is May 24th. It is considered likely that there will be at least two, and hopefully more, solid proposals.
Participant Updates: Mary Rawson reported that 18 Markleeville Enhancement Group volunteers cleaned five areas in Markleeville on May 5th. The Alps Haus supported the effort with gift certificates. Trina Johnson, NRCS, offered support and help to the ABC for funding on private land. Kimra McAfee, AWG, reported AWG’s next bimonthly meeting is May 14th, 5:30 pm, at the Woodfords Indian Education Center. There will be a presentation on trails and watershed health. Anna Belle Monti reported Caltrans is starting a hazard tree project on May 13th on highways 88, 89 and 4. Coreen Francis reported she is available to answer questions regarding CCI grants. The BLM signed a big decision on the Programmatic Environmental Assessment in February 2019. This covers all forest and woodland areas managed by the BLM in California (not us as we are in the Carson City District, NV). Josh Heitzmann reported the State Park will continue fuels reduction by removing several hundred hazard trees around Shay Creek and the pool complex at Grover Hot Springs. Matt Driscoll reported SNC’s forest health grant pre-applications will open in the summer of 2019 with final applications due in early October. Mark Schwartz, on behalf of the Markleeville Water Company, encouraged participants to conserve water. Mark Schwartz reported he will be helping with bike races and providing bike maintenance at Washoe Earth Day, Saturday, May 11th, at the Hung A Lel Ti gym from 9am-2pm. David Griffith reported he is getting information from the Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership regarding economic development related to outdoor recreation. He also reported that RCRC is working on an ambitious plan which would create 20 year master stewardship agreements for most forests in California. Chris Placke reported CALFIRE is conducting defensible space inspections on the Mesa.
The next meeting is set for Tuesday June 4th at 6:00 pm at Turtle Rock Park. It will be another planning meeting involving all the agencies that have past, present and future projects which improve forest or watershed health, and which reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires in Alpine County. There will also be a presentation by the Tahoe Conservancy on their Resilient Corridors Concept that they are working on with Liberty Utilities. Members of the public that are concerned with the risk of catastrophic wildfire to their homes and communities are encouraged to participate.
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Alpine Biomass Collaborative 