If you see smoke near North Columbia between now and June 16th, it’s a series of prescribed burns to help reduce the wildfire danger. Philip Oviatt, with the Bureau of Land Management, says it’s understory controlled burns on about 150 acres, in the area of Jackass Flats and Macnab Cypress Roads in the Ininim Forest. It’s in coordination with the Yuba Watershed Institute…

click to listen to Philip Oviatt

Oviatt says it’s part of the Inimim Forest Restoration Project, a multi-year partnership to protect communities in the wildland-urban interface and upgrade fire resiliency…

click to listen to Philip Oviatt

The burns are also being closely coordinated with the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District, with Cal Fire and the North San Juan Fire Department also participating. The Inimim Forest is nearly two-thousand acres of BLM public lands intermingled with private land on the San Juan Ridge. It’s a 30-mile-long narrow ridge, ranging from about 25-hundred to 38-hundred feet elevation between the South and Middle Yuba Rivers.