Success Stories
NV - Helping to Manage Pinyon Pine and Protect Communities
through the National Fire Plan.
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| Photo shows a portion of the Mt Wilson NDF pinyon improvement project (right side) and the BLM treatment on the left |
In June of 2003,Nevada Division of Forestry started a pinyon pine treatment and fuel reduction project in the 400 acre community of Mt. Wilson, located in Northern Lincoln County approximately 25 miles north of Pioche situated in heavy pinyon-juniper fuels with little understory cover. The Bureau of Land Management at the same time did a much larger scale fuel reduction project along the Mt. Wilson entrance road and around the edge of the community outskirts.
The Division used USFS National Fire Plan grant funding to develop a pinyon pine shaded fuel break along all roads for a distance of 60 feet in depth on both sides of the road along with defensible space treatments around the structures. When the project was first initiated, Nevada was in the midst of a prolonged drought and Pinyon Ips bark beetle mortality was increasing dramatically in Mt Wilson area. The project was implemented using the most recent NDF Pinyon Pine Management Guidelines to promote forest health.
All slash on the project was chipped and deposited on the ground. These chips were raked out to a uniform depth of not more than one inch in depth. Soil moisture increased dramatically underneath the chips, and the soil held on to the moisture longer. The chips also seemed to suppress noxious weeds like cheatgrass. A result of the project’s overstory canopy cover decrease, native and seeded ground cover increased dramatically even in the drought.
With over 50% of the existing pinion pine and juniper trees removed, more water became available to the remaining trees. As a result, new growth on pinyon pine was dramatically higher than in surrounding, non-treated areas. Bark beetle attacks also appeared to taper off in the treated areas even during the drought year of 2004. The springs present on the project site became more productive in volume and length of time water is available in the summer months.
In 2005, the area received up to 400% of the normal precipitation levels. The ground cover continued to increase, with more species becoming present. The existing springs have been flowing year round now, and some new springs have shown up, in one case, causing an existing road to be re-routed around a new spring that started flowing in the middle of the road. It appears that to date, the fuels treatment in this area has resulted in a greater bio-diversity of species, better soil conditions, and healthier trees and shrubs.
CONTACT: Gail Durham, 775-684-2513, gdurham@forestry.nv.gov
RELATED SITES: No related web sites.
DATE: 2005-10-12
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