Fire Season is Here

North Tahoe Fire and Meeks Bay Fire Protection Districts Prohibit ALL Open Burning and Recreational Fires

North Tahoe Fire Protection District (NTFPD), Meeks Bay Fire Protection District (MBFPD), and Alpine Springs CWD jurisdictions have activated local fire restrictions by suspending all solid fuel recreational fires and open burning. The suspension takes effect Monday and will remain in effect through the remainder of fire season.

“Timber vegetation is already at summer dryness levels, and above normal fire activity is projected in the Sierra and Tahoe regions this summer and likely into the fall.” said NTFPD Fire Chief Steve Leighton.

Press Release

Burn Ban Details

Alpine Meadows Cal Fire Grant Application

As a follow up to the AMEA community meeting held April 24, 2021, below is more information about the fire safety grants from Rachelle Latimer of the Alpine Meadows Fire Safe Council. If you’d like to add your individual signature to the letter (see location Map for reference), please email Rachelle Latimer at rachelle dot latimer at gmail dot com. Please include an image (.pdf, .jpeg, or .png) of your signature as well as your full name and Alpine address.

Dear HOA Presidents, Board Members and Large Landowners:

North Tahoe Fire Protection District (NTFPD) in partnership with Alpine Springs County Water District (ASCWD) and the Alpine Meadow Fire Safe Council (AMFSC) are planning to submit a grant application, the Alpine Meadows Community Wildfire Protection Plan Implementation, to CAL FIRE’s 2021-22 Fire Prevention Grants Program. NTFPD will be submitting this application no later than May 13, 2021 so time is of the essence.

CAL FIRE’s California Climate Investment Fire Prevention Grants Program

The goal of CAL FIRE’s California Climate Investment Fire Prevention Grants Program is to improve the resiliency of forested and forest adjacent communities and upper watershed forests while achieving climate goals. It provides funding for local projects and activities that address the risk of wildfire, reduce wildfire potential, and increase community resiliency. The activities include hazardous fuel reduction, fire prevention planning, and fire prevention education with an emphasis on improving public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to reduce the possibility of catastrophic wildfires which emit significant greenhouse gases and rather contain carbon dioxide in fewer but healthier trees.

Projects are selected on a competitive basis. Criteria that will be used to evaluate the projects include the overall benefit to reduce the threat of wildfires to the greatest number of habitable structures and leveraging multiple funding sources from each of the partners involved in the projects with priority being given to projects that contain matching funds and other financial resources (e.g. volunteer hours).

The awarded grants will be expended over a four-year period (2022-25).

Alpine Meadows Community Wildfire Protection Plan Implementation

As the title of our project indicates, we will be implementing the Alpine Meadows portion of the 2015 Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), which can be found online at http://www.tahoelivingwithfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/LakeTahoeBasinCommunityWildfireProtectionPlan_ReducedQuality.pdf (beginning on page 273). The short summary is that we will be addressing the areas highlighted in the attached pdf. This land includes greenbelt parcels owned by ASCWD and HOAs as well as other private property. Many of the red areas were cleared more than 10 years ago under another grant (and some more recently thanks to your efforts), and it is time to conduct fuel reduction work on these parcels again.

What does hazardous fuel reduction mean? First let us be clear that it is not clear cutting. Hand crews would be used to reduce vegetation in critical locations near ingress/egress areas and within approximately 100-300 feet of structures. This will increase safety for the public and first responders as well as reduce the fire hazard, improve tree growth, and increase forest resilience. The crews would eliminate the vertical and horizontal continuity of vegetative fuels (small trees, bushes, removing low hanging tree limbs, etc.) for the purpose of reducing the rate of fire spread, duration and intensity, fuel ignitability, or ignition of tree crowns. It will include selective understory tree removal (thinning from below) to improve forest health to withstand wildfire in addition to the removal of dead and dying trees that pose a threat to public health and safety.

Riparian areas along streams and creeks would be minimally touched. If work is permitted, the goal in these areas would be to reduce deadwood and other biomass that could ignite and remove encroaching upland vegetation (conifers & shrubs), leaving functioning riparian vegetation (alders, cottonwoods and aspens.)

We will continue working with the Alpine Meadows community on education regarding fuel reduction, home hardening, and emergency preparedness.

What do we want from the HOAs and large landowners?

1. We would like your endorsement for this grant application and plan to submit a joint letter of support. CAL FIRE is clear that applications with community buy-in will be viewed more favorably. Attached is a draft of the letter.

2. We would like to leverage your own efforts and those of your members/residents to serve as “matching” contributions to the grant. This can be:

a. Money you anticipate budgeting for defensible space and/or tree removal for the next three years; and/or

b. Surveying your members/residents on the money and/or hours they spend on defensible space clean up, tree removal, and/or home hardening efforts. We will provide you with a survey at the end of the summer to send to your members.

We would like your endorsement by May 7 so we can incorporate it into the grant application, which we intend to submit on May 13 If you are willing to sign the letter, please send me a pdf of your signature.

Members of the AMFSC are available to answer your questions and/or address your boards.

Thank you for your consideration of our request.

Rachelle Latimer | Alpine Meadows Fire Safe Council, Bear Creek Association member

AMEA Community Meeting Recap

Many thanks to all who attended our community meeting on Saturday. It you weren’t able to attend, you can watch the recording here (password: !GA$3n00).

Thanks for your great questions. As for a few follow-ups:

  • We’ll be adding a page to the website shortly with more information on Lot A.

  • As soon as we receive the updated ARM from BCPC, we’ll add it to the website.

  • Some of you asked how to support this year’s fire safety grant applications. We talked with the team working on the applications and they determined that one letter with a signatures page will be most impactful. You can read more about the grants and how to add your signature here.

  • Related to fire safety, we’ve recently revised the entire Fire Safety section of the website. Please take some time to review the materials John Moise curated. There’s a lot of helpful information about preparing for what is likely to be a very dry fire season.

  • A few of you asked where to find the Firewise certificate—there’s a dedicated page for it within the Fire Safety section should you ever need it in the future.

If you have any general feedback or topic ideas for future meetings, please don’t hesitate to email us at board@alpinemeadowsestatesassociation.org

Activities for 2021: AMEA Picnic & Wildflower Hike

Events like our AMEA Picnic keep our community connected. We are tentatively planning on having our annual AMEA picnic on August 7, 2021. AMEA household membership includes two tickets to the picnic.* Stay tuned as we finalize the plans based on COVID vaccine rollout and public safety.

Alpine Springs Water District is also planning a wildflower hike. We will share details as we get them!

Interested in becoming an AMEA member? Click here.

Join Us at Our April 24 Meeting

We’re inviting everyone in the Alpine Meadows Estates (AME) community* to join our first Zoom meeting on April 24 from 4 to 5:30 p.m.  You’ll learn more about the AMEA 2020 Survey results, 2021 focus areas including fire safety, the latest on the Bear Creek Planning Committee (BCPC), planned and future AMEA member events, history of AME’s Lot A and much more. See the agenda below.

To join the Zoom meeting, click this link at the start time: link

Agenda

  • Introduction to the Board - 10 minutes

  • Survey Results – 15 minutes

  • AMEA Community Hub, Focus Areas:  Fire Safety – 5 minutes

  • Fire Safety Update – 10 minutes

  • BCPC Overview – 15 minutes

  • Other Events: Regular Zoom Meetings, Picnic, Future Events – 10 minutes

  • Lot A History – 15 minutes

  • Membership Update – 10 minutes

  • Questions & Answers – 5+ minutes

*Membership not required to attend. If you’re not yet a member, it’s just $35 per household to get access to member-only events and discount programs. Join us!

Survey Results Inform AMEA 2021 Focus Areas

AMEA’s 2020 survey responses (from 100+ people) highlight what you and our neighbors care about, and inform the AMEA board’s 2021 focus areas. Along with fire safety, emergency preparedness, improving communications, respondents requested additional meetings (virtual during these times) to update our community. Respondents provided ideas for community improvements with AMEA to act as organizer and advocate for our community. For example, organizing events like “Octoberfest”, outdoor movie nights and coordinating tree-cutting services for members-only discounts. See the detailed survey results here. Missed the survey and have input for the AMEA Board? What do you think of these focus areas? Email us at board@alpinemeadowsestatesassociation.org

This Saturday at 4pm: Virtual Evacuation Drill

In an effort to increase community wildfire preparedness, Squaw Valley | Alpine Meadows will be hosting one community “area of refuge” virtual evacuation drill in collaboration with Squaw Valley Fire Department, North Tahoe Fire Protection District, Placer County Sheriff, Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Fire Safe Councils, and the residents of Olympic Valley and Alpine Meadows. The drill will take place on Sept. 12, 4pm.

The event will take place using Microsoft Teams and you can find the login details here.

New Rules & Bans to Increase Regional Fire Safety

Over the past week, various agencies have implemented limitations to protect our area from wildfire danger.

On Tuesday, September 8th, 2020, the USDA Forest Service banned camping in various forest areas in our region. For a complete list of areas impacted, see the Press Release

On Friday, September 4th, 2020, all recreational campfires and charcoal use has been banned in the Lake Tahoe/Truckee region. Press Release

Lake Tahoe West Restoration Partnership

Mentioned at last Saturday’s valley-wide meeting, forest restoration on the West Shore is underway to increase the area’s resilience to fire and other environmental hazards intensified by climate change. Based on the timeline outlined in their project overview, they are currently soliciting input from the public. Implementation is slated to begin in 2022, with an estimated average annual cost of $13 million. The restoration project includes 6 goals:

  1. Forests recover from fire, drought, and insect outbreaks.

  2. Fires burn at primarily low to moderate severities and provide ecological benefits.

  3. Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems support native species.

  4. Healthy creeks and floodplains provide clean water, complex habitat, and buffering from floods and droughts.

  5. People live safely with fire and enjoy and steward the landscape.

  6. Restoration is efficient, collaborative, and supports a strong economy.

For additional details on the collaborate, inter-agency project, which is scoped to restore 60K+ acres, you can visit the National Forest Foundation website.