Prescribed burns are taking place at Montaña de Oro this month and early Thursday morning, fire crews gathered near Sandspit Beach before heading to the burn site.
After some direction on the assignments for the day, they got to work.
“Today we are lighting eucalyptus piles that were once standing trees but were cut down to reduce fuel impacts,” said Nora Stankavich, California State Parks Forestry Technician.
Stankavich said this is done to give native habitat space to return to the environment.
Using a drip torch full of diesel and gasoline, the piles are lit.
“So because it's so warm, we’ll typically do around 20 piles but on good days, we have good lift, high humidity overnight, we can get up to 40 piles,” Stankavich said.
Other crew members stand by with water just in case.
“From the engines we bring all of our water to usually a snap tank and this holds approximately 1,000 gallons of water and our engines also have an additional 900 gallons of water,” said Micaelina Sarmiento Martinez, California State Parks Environmental Scientist.
Sarmiento Martinez said her job is to make sure water is ready at all times.
“If they’re also spreading out a little more than we would like to, then we like wet the edges and bring it back to what perimeter we want around the piles,” Sarmiento Martinez said regarding the burn piles.
The crew will work about 10-hour days but some will stay overnight to make sure the heavier piles finish burning.
“Basically, what that entails is just we stick around throughout the night and we get up a few times throughout the evening, do checks on the piles, make sure that they’re not creeping out of where we want them to go, pushing in piles and just letting them cook down overnight,” said Brad Collins, California State Parks Environmental Scientist.
Collins said that for a long time, many people had questions about prescribed burns.
“What exactly it entails, is it a safe practice? Is it ecologically beneficial? But it seems like the narrative has kind of switched around the last few years and people are really starting to get on board," Collins said.
The prescribed burn is expected to continue until the beginning of April as weather conditions allow.
