National Fire Plan Success Story
A Healthy Forest Reborn
Lassen Volcanic National Park, California
National Fire Plan - Fuels Reduction
2007
Project area before fuels reduction project.
Project area after fuels reduction.
The Manzanita Lake Campground is the largest and most visited campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Forests within the Manzanita Lake Campground area have been significantly altered in recent years by management activities, development, and insect and disease epidemics. These unhealthy conditions developed over time largely due to the absence of fire to help maintain historic vegetation regimes. White fir trees have significantly encroached within the project area in the absence of frequent surface fire and now form dense, pole size thickets of several hundred trees per acre. These thickets or ladder fuels have created vegetation profiles which promote highly destructive crown fire activity. These hazardous fuels required removal to preserve the historic pine stands and protect this high use recreation area of the park.
During the spring and summer of 2007 fire staff completed a thinning project which treated 80 acres. Removal of biomass in the form of merchantable timber resources to offset overall project cost was a primary consideration. Specifically, both small and larger diameter white firs, which were competing with historic Jeffrey Pine, were removed to reduce ladder and aerial fuel loadings and profiles. Smaller limb fuels associated with the operation were hauled out of the campground manually and sorted into piles to be burned by National Park Service crews in the fall of 2008.
Manzanita Lake Campground in 1960 (left) and 2006 (right). Numbers in each photo highlight the same points of reference.
Contact: Eric Hensel, Fire Management Officer, phone: (530) 595-4444 ext. 5168.