Land Management Plan - Part 2 Los Padres National Forest Strategy

Land Management Plan Part 2
Los Padres National Forest Strategy
September 2005
These projects include treatment of all slash and are expected to move forested areas
from Condition Class 3 towards Condition Class 1 (see Part 1-Vision, Forest Goal 1.2 -
Restoration of Forest Health). In chaparral areas, mortality removal is planned in order to
reduce the fire hazard from high to low.
• Thinning - Annual Need: 400 acres. This includes the removal of living trees from
overstocked stands, in most cases trees of 24 inches in diameter or less. These projects
include the treatment of all slash and are expected to move forested areas from Condition
Class 2 or 3 towards Condition Class 1. Thinning is required prior to the reintroduction of
fire in most cases.
• Reforestation And Restoration Of Forest Vegetation - Annual Need: 100 acres.
Restoration projects are either designed to facilitate natural recovery following
disturbance (fire, drought related mortality, insect and disease) or to implement planting
projects as needed when natural processes are not likely to achieve desires results.
• Fuelbreak Maintenance - Annual Need: 1,000 acres. Existing fuelbreaks are generally
maintained using prescribed fire, grazing, or mechanical methods. Most of the fuelbreaks
are in high-hazard chaparral areas and are designed to limit wildland fire size and provide
firefighter access and improved firefighter safety. A few of the fuelbreaks are in
coniferous forest and serve to limit fire spread from or towards communities or timber
stands in poor condition. Most of the existing fuelbreaks are on ridgetops or along roads.
• Fuelbreak Construction - Annual Need: 400 acres. Most of the planned fuelbreaks are
also along roads and ridgetops and are proposed for limiting the spread of wildland fire.
Most fuelbreaks are constructed with mechanized equipment. Some are built by hand or
by using prescribed fire. Herbicides may be used to kill resprouting chaparral and then
fire is used to maintain the fuelbreak over time. Fuelbreaks are sometimes constructed
near communities to provide some level of future protection in cases where land
ownership patterns or topography limit the applicability of the Wildland/Urban Interface
Defense and Threat Zones concept.
• Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI) Defense and Threat Zones- Annual Need: 3,500
acres (Defense 1,500, Threat 2,000). A WUI Defense Zone is a relatively narrow area in
width (see standards S7 and S8 in Part 3) directly adjoining structures that is converted to
a less flammable state to increase defensible space and firefighter safety. A secondary
zone (the WUI Threat Zone, see standard S7 in Part 3) is an additional strip of vegetation
modified to reduce flame heights and radiant heat. The two zones together are designed to
make most structures defensible. These zones are applicable to national forest lands only
and are applicable to structures on public land and can also be applied where national
forest boundaries are directly adjacent to communities on private lands. Techniques may
include hand or machine removal of vegetation and the use of herbicides in the WUI
Defense Zone. Treatments in the WUI Threat Zone are less intensive and can generally be
maintained with prescribed fire over the long-term. In forested areas, extensive tree
thinning is planned as part of installing WUI Threat Zones.
• Prescribed (Rx) Fire - Annual Need: 10,000 acres. Projects placed in this category are
generally large burns in chaparral to reduce fire hazard near communities or as part of an
overall landscape mosaic designed to limit the spread of wildland fire. Prescribed fire is
also used to help restore and maintain lands in the coniferous forest areas, currently
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