TAHOE BASIN, Calif./Nev. – A team of three agencies have caught up on their to-do list when it comes to burn piles on Nevada state lands in the Tahoe Basin, largely thanks to this winter’s conditions.

The burn conditions this winter starkly contrast to the year before. During the 2022-2023 winter, “We had very poor pile burning conditions with piles saturated from early winter rain,” Forester Anna Higgins with the Nevada Division of Forestry says, “and then buried by record amounts of snow.”

Those conditions limited the burn weather window. This, along with drought, and lack of fire crews during wildfire off-season or prescribed fire qualified personnel in past years all contributed to the backlog of burn piles. Higgins burnt piles as old as 15 years.

It was this backlog that crews were able to catch up on this winter.

She says they prioritize pile burning and broadcast burning across the state when they have the right weather conditions and fire crews available. December through April brought just that.

“This winter happened to have some of the best pile burning conditions we have experienced in Tahoe recently,” Higgins explains.

The Nevada Division of Forestry, North Lake Tahoe, and Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District burned piles on 255 acres of state owned land in the basin over those months. Spooner, Sand Harbor and Van Sickle Bi-State Park are examples of locations crews treated.

You may still run into a burn pile here and there. Crews let piles dry out for several years so they produce less smoke and burn more efficiently when it does come time to ignite. But the agencies are now on schedule to stay on top of those future burn piles.

Burn piles are just one way of removing excess fuels from forests. Other treatments include logging, masticating, and chipping.

New to NDF is a year-round fire and fuels crew available for prescribed burns when they are not fighting fires.

Higgins says, “While we cannot predict what the weather will do each year, we will continue to take advantage of prescribed burn weather windows when and where we can.”

To see current prescribed fire and forest thinning projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin visit tahoelivingwithfire.com.