SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Prescribed burns have begun around Lake Tahoe this week and smoke may be visible as part of the operations.

The Tahoe Fire & Fuels Team, which includes local, state, and federal partners, will continue with prescribed fire operations around the lake through much of the winter season, weather and conditions permitting.

Prescribed fires help land managers reduce hazardous fuels that can feed unwanted wildfires.

West to southwest winds forecast over the next couple of days will likely make smoke visible from the prescribed burns by California State Parks at Sugar Pine Point and D.L. Bliss state parks on the West Shore.

The Sugar Point burn west of Highway 89 and along S. Fire Road and Campground Road, is expected to last about three weeks and burn 20 acres, according to the TFFT website.

The fuel reduction project at D.L. Bliss is about 31 acres.

California State Parks is burning 15 acres of burn piles at Burton Creek State Park, north of Rocky Ridge and west of North Tahoe High School.

Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District is planning to ignite burn piles Tuesday in Van Sickle Park on 40 acres.

The fire district is also igniting 10 acres of burn piles on Tuesday on Spooner Summit that is expected to last a few days. The district is also burning 40 acres in Tahoe City.

North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District has four burn pile projects happening in the Incline Village area, 2 acres near Apollo Way and Mercury Court, 9 acres northeast of Lariat Circle, 25 acres at Diamond Peak Ski Resort and 8 acres along Brunswick Transmission Power Line east of Ponderosa Ranch.