Tamarack Fire Restoration 3 Meeting Summary

The December meeting was well attended with 21 people attending in person and five people attending via Zoom.  Since no actions were taken there will be no notes for this meeting, only this summary.

The first presentation was by Coreen Francis-Clark, BLM’s California and Nevada State Forester.  Her presentation was on BLM’s Camp Fire Restoration Plan, which is essentially the same as what they plan here after the Tamarack Fire.  The plan contains most of the elements that researchers have been presenting to the ABC over the past few years on what constitutes a resilient forest.  The plan is available here and here.

The second presentation was by Matthew Setty of Nevada Environmental on the restoration after the Tamarack Fire of the 800 acre Storm Crow property which is just north and west of Markleeville.  The planned restoration work includes the logging of approximate 310 acres and the recycling of the mycorrhizal and fungal inoculated wood mulch into the fire impacted soils.  An early winter aerial seeding program has been completed and consisted of a wildland habitat and erosion control seed mix over the burned acreage.  Some 14,000 trees will be planted over the next three years.

Helicopter Seeding over the Storm Crow Property             photo: NV Environmental

Participant updates:  Coreen Francis (BLM) announced that they would be looking for an intern to do seed collection.  Rachel Kieffer introduced herself and is the new Watershed Coordinator for the AWG.  Brian Newman (CalFire) reported that they still had crews removing hazard trees at Grovers Hot Springs.  CalFire also assisted the Markleeville Water Company’s restoration in the Musser – Jarvis watershed.  Tim Roide (BLM) announced that they would be doing fuels reduction on the two parcels that did not burn in the Tamarack Fire which are located near the Faye-Luther trailhead and Jackson Ranch Rd.  He was also congratulated on his imminent retirement.  Ed DeCarlo introduced himself as a board member of River Wranglers and was here to gather information on the Tamarack Fire.  Matt Driscoll (SNC) announced the upcoming Wildfire Recovery and Forest Resilience Grant Program that should open January 3^rd for applications with proposals due January 31^st.  Matt Setty (NV Environmental) announced that they would be putting out a newsletter on the Storm Crow project about every six weeks.  To subscribe send an e-mail requesting it to stephanie@nvenv.net.  He also offered to give anyone interested a tour of the project.  David Griffith (ABC) reported that the Kirkwood District Heating project using biomass was reworked thanks to support from the Sierra Institute.  The revised project description was presented to the Kirkwood Meadows PUD, but they are not interested at this time.  On the biomass-to-bioenergy project in Woodfords there is some new interest from the Tahoe Basin which will be followed up on.  The Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership’s (ESSRP) Connected Communities Trail Plan Project has received a request from SNC staff to present a formal grant application and a funding decision is expected at their March board meeting.  Along with Sierra Riker he also recapped the community effort to restore the Musser – Jarvis watershed for the Markleeville Water Company.

Future Meetings:  There will not be a meeting in January, but the February meeting will feature Michelle Coppoletta, an Ecologist with the Forest Service who will be making a presentation on her recent paper with Dr. Brandon Collins on post-fire management of vegetation and fuels.  Assuming that there is no covid explosion the February meeting will be at the Turtle Rock Park Community Center at 6:00 pm on Tuesday Feb. 1^st.  Masks or face shields will be required and we will need to maintain social distancing.  If there is a covid explosion the meeting will be on Zoom.