Last summer, highly flammable junipers were thinned out in three project areas in Tooele County to reduce their potential to become fuel for wildfires.
"Contracting crews went out and increased canopy spacing and put branches and trees into piles," said Erin Darboven, fire information spokeswoman for the Salt Lake Field Office of the BLM.
Now those piles -- roughly 12 feet in diameter and 5 to 10 feet high -- will be burned. It is estimated there will be 16 piles per treated acre.
Beginning tomorrow, there will be about 6,000 piles burned at the Iosepa Wildland Urban Interface project area. The project area is three miles northeast of Iosepa and three-fourths of a mile south of the Delle Ranch.
Burning on the other two project areas -- Big Hollow and Hill Springs -- will commence later in the season.
The Big Hollow project area, west of Rush Valley and south of Big Hollow, had 300 acres treated. The project area is just north of the Clover Creek Campground. There aren't any plans for closing the campground.
Nearly 1,000 acres of the Hill Springs project area, south of the Pony Express Road and east of Lookout Pass, were also treated.
Reseeding efforts on 250 acres of the Big Hollow project area will begin next spring. The Iosepa and Hill Springs project areas won't be getting reseeded because there is enough native understory at both locations.
In order for burning to go forward, Darboven said weather conditions need to allow for smoke dispersal, and enough precipitation needs to be on the ground.
swest@tooeletranscript.com
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