New live maps track prescribed fires in the Tahoe Basin

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE – Take a quick trip to the Tahoe region and it’s easy to see that conditions are ripe for a wildfire.

A group of people do everything in their power to avoid one.

“The Tahoe Basin is quite overpopulated and very vulnerable to insects, disease and certainly catastrophic fires,” said Victoria Ortiz.

Ortiz is part of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team, a collection of organizations — including the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency — that work to reduce fire fuels and prepare communities for a wildfire.

“We do that by implementing fuel reduction projects and trying to engage the community, becoming fire adaptive and generally being safer,” Ortiz said.

Martin Goldberg, a fire captain with Lake Valley Fire Protection, is another member of the team. He says those mitigation projects can be large and labor intensive.

“If you’re one of our hand crews, you’ll be cutting trees all day,” Goldberg said.

A new tool on the team’s website aims to keep the community up to date with what they’re doing: the Lake Tahoe Basin Project and Prescribed Fire Map.

The map lists each project, what they do, and how long it should take.

“The ability to communicate is so important to the public,” Goldberg said.

To date, the Fire and Fuels team has treated nearly 95,000 acres—and for the most part, the projects won’t stop because it’s an ongoing effort to keep Tahoe amazing and safe.

“Geographically, we’re really unique because we’re two states, five counties (and) one city,” Ortiz said. “It’s a huge collaborative effort.”

The team also lists other useful maps on its website, including a real-time air quality map and the Wildfire Alert vehicle camera system.