SAN FRANCISCO – The North Fork bioenergy plant has just cleared another hurdle toward getting the project up and running. They have now been offered a power purchase agreement from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). North Fork Community Power, LLC, is a joint venture between Phoenix Energy and the North Fork Community Development Council that will own and operate a ...

NORTH FORK – Last winter’s storms brought much needed rain and snow to the Sierra Nevada, creating a significant amount of runoff, causing several roads on the Sierra National Forest (NF) to sustain considerable damage due the runoff from those storms. Sierra NF engineers recently awarded a contract to repair damage to Minarets Road (Forest Road 4S81). The road will ...

NORTH FORK – The Sierra National Forest, Bass Lake Ranger District, is preparing for the fall, winter, and spring burning program, said District Ranger Denise Tolmie, and projects will consist of three activities: pile burning, broadcast, and underburning. The objectives will be to reduce fuel loading from recent tree morality, and hazard removal projects within the Wildland Urban Interface and ...

NORTH FORK — As often happens when crews are called up for an incident – whether fire or hurricane – the Crane Valley Hot Shots were released back to their duty station after gearing up to assist in the Puerto Rico disaster. The 20-person crew responded last Saturday to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., ready and willing to ...

NORTH FORK — After a long season of fighting fires across the region, the Sierra National Forest Crane Valley Hot Shots are looking forward to a new assignment – assisting the residents of Puerto Rico who have seen their homeland devastated by Hurricane Maria. Just five days after being released from a 30-day stint in a spike camp on the ...

OAKHURST — Fire steals, even from those who fight it. It robs creatures of habitat, takes possessions, property, land, and sometimes, life. Fire also gives back: flames can be restorative, over time, for overgrown forests filled with beetle-infested, drought-plagued timber. Fire makes way for fledgling trees and new families of fauna to thrive on once-sterile ground. And fire can remind ...

PRATHER – Fire managers on the High Sierra Ranger District are planning to continue ignitions for the 833-acre Dinkey South understory prescribed fire, on Tuesday, Oct. 3. Using the advantage of favorable weather conditions, these ignitions will begin where they ended this past spring after 180 acres were successfully treated, say officials. Fire personnel and equipment will be committed to ...

OAKHURST — The Railroad Fire continues to hold at 12,407 acres and is now 98 percent contained. Activity is winding down at the Incident Command Post at the Ahwahnee Hills Regional Park, and there will be a lot of work done to return the park to its pre-fire condition once the fire camp has been fully dismantled. Demobilization continues as ...

OAKHURST — As activity winds down on the Railroad Fire, crews continue to be demobilized to return to their home units or be made available for other fires in the region. The fire is still holding at 12,407 acres and is now 87 percent contained. The Railroad Fire will transition to a local Sierra National Forest Type 3 management organization ...

CENTRAL SIERRA — Here is an update on the four major fires burning in our area as of this morning. The Railroad Fire has not grown over the past 24 hours, and is holding at 12,407 acres. It is now 80 percent contained. There were no crews on the fireline last night. Thunderstorms brought about a quarter inch of rain over ...