SANTA CRUZ — The light-colored smoke was behaving as planned, snaking its way from burning mounds straight up through the trees.
Passing motorists and cyclists traveling Empire Grade north of the UC Santa Cruz campus Tuesday morning were spared thick fumes barring their way, a carefully coordinated dance requiring optimal winds, humidity, temperature and other conditions, said Brett Agler, a forester and vegetation management program coordinator for Cal Fire CZU.
As Agler looked on, firefighters proceeded along the roadway, using drip torches, flares and leaf blowers to light some 60 vegetation piles, primarily made of shrubbery, leaves and small low tree limbs, that had cured for months. The controlled pile burning will resume Thursday morning, weather conditions permitting, he said.
Cal Fire firefighters were beginning the first half of a two-day cleanup project designed to renew a shaded fuel break established in the mostly mixed conifer forest several years ago. The pile burn effort, located south of Smith Grade, serves to maintain an area of thinned-out vegetation on California State Parks property, Agler said. By torching the small piles of vegetation in the cooler wet period between winter and spring, materials that could not otherwise be shredded are removed in a controlled environment, Agler said. Fire crews remain on the scene after the piles burn out to ensure that the fires are fully out.
A shaded fuel break reduces dry brush and understory vegetation so that an approaching wildfire, particularly those sparked at the roadside, loses its momentum and fuel and is less likely to climb up into the forest’s tree canopy, said Agler. They also create staging areas for firefighting efforts and provide forest access points during a wildfire.
“If a fire were to move through here, it would dramatically slow down the spread of the fire — in theory, enough for us to put it out,” Agler said. “It would be less intense and minimize the chance of spread elsewhere.”
Several miles away on Tuesday, California State Parks conducted its own vegetation pile burn project at Wilder Ranch State Park. The parks’ natural resources crew was scheduled to burn small wood piles near the historic complex. No trail closures were anticipated.
