Sacramento Fire Department crews were called Tuesday morning to put out a fire along the American River bike trail near Discovery Park.
The fire was reported about 6 a.m. burning in grass about a half-mile east of Discovery Park on the north side of the American River. The blaze spread into underbrush and trees, eventually consuming at least 1 acre.
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Sacramento and Metro fire crews responded to a fire that broke out about 9:30 a.m. near a homeless encampment along the American River at Discovery Park.
A Metro Fire helicopter was seen doing multiple water drops to put out flames and keep trees from toppling on firefighters.
More than 10,000 acres of scenic meadows, forests and trout streams in the Sierra Nevada 10 miles west of Lake Tahoe have been preserved in a deal in which environmentalists hope to prove that thinning out overgrown forests can increase California’s water supply.
The Northern Sierra Partnership, an environmental group based in Palo Alto and founded by longtime Silicon Valley leaders Jim and Becky Morgan, joined with the Nature Conservancy and the American River Conservancy to buy the land for $10.1 million from Simorg West Forests, a timber company based in Atlanta.
The deal, which closed Aug. 5, preserves a landscape south of Interstate 80 in Placer County adjacent to Granite Chief Wilderness in the Tahoe National Forest. The land contains more than 20 miles of blue ribbon trout streams.
Home to black bears, mountain lions, deer, songbirds and other wildlife, the remote property also includes the headwaters of two of California’s popular whitewater rafting rivers, the North and Middle forks of the American River.
“There are forests and meadows, and granite outcroppings,” said David Edelson, Sierra Nevada director for the Nature Conservancy. “There are terrific views looking down the American River watershed and toward the Granite Chief Wilderness.”
For years, loggers turned the property’s evergreen forests into wooden crates for Central Valley fruits and vegetables. Now the environmental groups plan to remove old logging roads and restore the landscape.
But more significant, the purchase could change how California, now suffering through the fourth year of a historic drought, manages its Sierra Nevada forests in ways that might provide more water to cities, farms and the environment.
But starting roughly 100 years ago, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies began putting out the fires, often to protect communities that had sprung up through the mountains. As a result, the forests grew thicker. Now, across millions of acres of the Sierra, around Lake Tahoe and in other parts of the West, some evergreen forests have five times or more trees per acre as they would naturally.
The trees are small, spindly and often prone to disease and beetles.
UC Merced and UC Berkeley scientists have done research indicating that if these forests are thinned it could increase the amount of water flowing from the Sierra Nevada into streams, rivers, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay.
“We’re trying to keep the trees in check so the forest is in a more sustainable condition,” said Roger Bales, a UC Merced engineering professor who directs the university’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute. “One of the benefits is that you get more water.”
The Sierra Nevada provides 40 percent or more of California’s water supply through snow and rain.
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Sacramento Fire crews were called about 11 a.m. to a small grass fire Monday along the American River Parkway.
The fire, which broke out on Highway 160 and Northgate Boulevard near a wooden trestle that firefighters were working to protect.
The fire did not cause any traffic delays in the area and consumed about two acres
A wildland fire burning two miles southwest ofBlue Canyon was holding steady at five acres.
Cal Fire reported the fire, first called in late Tuesday, was located in steep terrain along the north fork of the north fork of the American River.
Dubbed the Burnett Fire, the blaze was being controlled by water drops from aircraft as Cal Fire attempted to get ground crews. Containment lines were being set up along ridges and other more easily accessible areas.
The nearest structures threatened were in the airport area. Blue Canyon is about 35 miles northeast of Auburn.
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The Kyburz fire was reported fully contained Wednesday after burning through 75 acres of timber and steep canyon areas off Highway 50 in El Dorado County.
The fire was reported around 2 p.m. July 23 in the south fork of the American River canyon, west of the community of Kyburz. It burned east of Whitehall on both sides of Highway 50, prompting evacuations and closure of Highway 50. One lane of the highway reopened Friday evening. All lanes were open on Saturday.
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A four-acre fire broke out Tuesday morning along the American River Parkway near downtown Sacramento. It burned along Highway 160 near the Costco sending a plume of smoke that was seen from the downtown area.
No structures were threatened and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
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Metro Fire crews quickly put out a small grass fire that was burning Wednesday near the American River in Fair Oaks.
Firefighters were called out about 10:45 a.m. to the north side of the American River, near mile-marker 26.
Fire officials said it initially appeared the fire was started by some sort of device.
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A three-alarm grass fire Monday night on the American River Parkway near Cal Expo burned about 11 acres.
The fire that reached the treetops was driven by a strong wind, which spread embers that ignited small spot fires.
Crews mopped up on Tuesday and were to cut down some charred trees. No structures were damaged, and there were no injuries
A wave of lightning strikes swept across parts of Northern California Thursday, touching off flames and causing concern more fires could erupt as temperatures warm next week.
“We’ve had over 500 lightning strikes in Northern California in the last six hours,” Cal Fire spokesman Brice Bennett said early Thursday evening, as dispatchers monitored lightning strikes at the Amador-El Dorado Unit’s joint operations center in Camino.
“Butte’s had a couple strikes and the fire has actually grown to over 20 acres,” Bennett added.
The biggest concern is that strike-caused fires would keep burning, even as rain continues to fall.
“So, we’re seeing lightning-sparked fires, with rain, grow. And that’s a cause of concern for us,” Bennett said. “Some of the units in Northern California have activated their lightning plan due to the number of strikes and the fires they are finding from these strikes.”
Up the South Fork of the American River to the east, camper Rebekah Huitema recalled the arrival of thunder and lightning there.
“I screamed like a little girl,” Huitema said. “It was right here. You could almost feel the pulse from it.”
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