Merrill Fuels Reduction Project Completed

Harold Tripp
Fire Coordinator/Cultural Resources Specialist
Karuk Tribe

For the last seven weeks, the Department of Natural Resources Hazardous Fuels Reduction Crew has worked up the Salmon River on the Merrill Creek Hazard Fuel Reduction Project (located at the foot of Offield Mountain).   The funding to make this project possible came from the Siskiyou County Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) and the Six River National Forest.  Through government-to-government negotiations between the Karuk Tribe and the US Forest Service an agreement was formed for the Tribe to complete the project.  Based on qualifications, five (5) members of the Karuk 1 Fire Crew were selected to complete the project. The objective of the project was to protect our communities from catastrophic wildfire by gathering up dead fuels, removing ladder fuels, pulling poison oak and coyote vine from trees, and removing overgrown vegetation from the forest floor.

     The Karuk People, are “fix the world people” and it is our religious and cultural responsibility  to manage the forest so it is healthy enough to provide sustainable natural resources.

     Our vision in our Hazard Fuel Reduction Program is to imagine an old growth forest in a closed canopy environment and work to shape the landscape into that vision.  The only way for this vision to become a reality in our forests today is to reduce the fuels that have overgrown for the last several decades.

     By cutting back the overgrowth and reducing fuel loading, we will ensure healthy populations of basket-making materials and medicinal plants, while opening new land for wildlife to forage.  When fuels are reduced we may be able to begin the fire regimen of our ancestors, who traditionally used
low-intensity fires to prevent buildup of material on the forest floor which we refer to as a "duff layer".  An excessive duff layer diminishes the chances of plant survival.  We have used fire as a tool to clean up the forest floor and regenerate plant growth since time began.  When these forest management practices are implemented the incidence of catastrophic wildfires are reduced.

     As a young boy I remember being in old growth forests with my grandfather; many of these areas are now overgrown conifer forests instead of the diverse hardwood forests from those years past.  We strive to shift from the current system that manages exclusively for conifers, to a system that is managing instead for a more healthier diverse forest.  We hope to get back to those productive, diverse old growth forests through the hard work and dedication of our Tribal Fuels Reduction Crews.
Used with permission of the Karuk Tribe

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