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Today the Grindstone Ranger District began burning brush piles at the Paskenta work station. Smoke may be visible in the area. One acre of piles was successfully completed. Firefighters will remain on-scene until this evening. They will continue monitoring until the piles are no longer burning. Pile burning at the Chico Seed Orchard has been postponed until weather conditions improve. This project will hopefully resume next week.

WILLOWS, Calif., Jan. 18, 2023 — This week officials on the Upper Lake Ranger District will begin prescribed burning on 452 acres of hand piles in the Lake Pillsbury area as weather and fuel conditions allow. Locations of the piles (Township, Range, Section)

Upper Lake Ranger District Lake Pillsbury Homesites piles: 18N 10W S 12, 13 Booth Crossing piles: 19N 10W S 27, 28, 34 Westshore piles: 18N 10W S 3, 4, 14, 15 19N 10W S 32  

On the Upper Lake Ranger District, 10.5 acres of hand piles were completed this week. Several days of unfavorable weather conditions hampered operations resulting in fewer acres being burned than planned. All ignitions will continue to be monitored until fully out. Less than 1/2" of rain fell overnight according to the Soda Creek RAWS weather station, and the project area will remain in patrol status over the weekend.

Forest fuels crews are planning to burn piles this week between Tuesday, Feb. 21 and Friday, Feb. 24, weather permitting. On the Upper Lake Ranger District, crews will attempt approximately 30 acres of pile burning in the Westshore project or the Pillsbury homesites area. On the Grindstone Ranger District, crews will attempt 10 acres of pile burning at the Chico Seed Orchard and 2 acres at Paskenta Station.

After a week of storms and windy conditions, today the Grindstone Ranger District was able to successfully complete four acres of machine pile burning at the Red Bluff Recreation Area.  Firefighters remained on scene for several hours and will continue to monitor the piles until all ignitions are fully out. Smoke may continue to be visible until the piles are completely consumed.

On Tuesday, January 24, 2023, six acres was completed in the Westshore pile burning project near Lake Pillsbury on the Upper Lake Ranger District.  An additional 4.5 acres was completed on January 25.

Ten acres of hand piles in Unit 8 of the Westshore Pile Burning Project near Lake Pillsbury was attempted today. The area remains in patrol status until smoke and hot spots are no longer observed. On Monday, five acres was attempted though ignitions were cut short when relative humidity dropped and was no longer within the burn plan parameters. Only 1/2 an acre of low fire intensity was completed with no visible smoke and no heat observed by the end of the day.

Due to windy conditions in the Westshore Unit 8 and Pillsbury Homesites project areas on the Upper Lake Ranger District, pile burning has been suspended for today.  Weather conditions are expected to remain the same, so no burning is expected for tomorrow. Conditions are evaluated on a daily basis. Operations will resume when conditions allow.

The planned pile burning operations on the Upper Lake Ranger District were suspended today and for the rest of the week due to weather. The current storm system is causing high winds and snow at low elevations. There are concerns that the winds and wet weather will cause new downed trees or land slides impacting access to the burn project sites as well as making poor conditions for successful prescribed fire. Conditions will be re-evaluated early next week for resumption of pile burning operations.