The following is a press release from the Eel River Recovery Project:

The Eel River Recovery Project, in collaboration with local landowners and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), is working to restore good fire to the land through an ambitious, multi-year watershed-wide forest health project in the Tenmile Creek Watershed in the Laytonville area. On October 11, ERRP held a successful prescribed burn on nearly 30 acres in the Lower Tenmile, and on November 23, it organized a well-attended community pile burn at Vassar Ranch. Both burns were led by burn boss Scot Steinbring and the nonprofit Torchbearrs.

On December 7, Will Emerson of the Northern Mendocino Ecosystem Recovery Alliance (NM-ERA) will partner with ERRP to host a FREE on-site workshop at Vassar Ranch, open to all community members, to learn more about the stack burn and Tenmile Creek to learn Visit the Forest Health Project and view the fire aftermath of the recent stack fires. Emerson will conduct a hands-on demonstration of the environmental benefits of various burning methods, including preservation piles, “rick” burning and the portable biochar burner.

• Saturday, December 7, 2024, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m
• 7 miles north of Laytonville
• Learn how to build stakes in the forest and burn them safely
• Get practical guidance on lighting, monitoring and extinguishing stakes.
• Find out what permits are required and how to get them.
• Learn new firing techniques, including the conservation firing technique, making biochar in a Ring of Fire kiln, and building a stack of sticks and watching it burn.
• The workshop is FREE with a FREE lunch. The event is supported by a grant from the Mendocino Community Foundation.

Due to parking problems, the number of participants is limited to 30 participants. So please register in advance now. Directions and further details will be emailed to you once you have registered. Register by clicking HERE and filling out the form.

The Lower Tenmile Creek project area is located near Highway 101, approximately 7 miles north of Laytonville. The workshop starts at 10 a.m. Smoke may be visible on Highway 101 and surrounding areas.

Our native fire-adapted forests are littered with dense tree cover and wood fuels on the forest floor, a result of over a century of fire suppression. Over the spring and summer, Elk Ridge Tree Service crews cleared burns and timber debris and built hundreds of burn piles at the Vassar site. Burning these piles will reduce the fuel load backlog so that mandated litter burning can occur safely in the area in the future. The Dec. 7 workshop will focus on climate-friendly methods of heap burning that store carbon as biochar instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

For more information, visit https://nm-era.org/