On Tuesday, May 18, 2010, the county board passed a motion accepting a $120,000 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) grant to reduce understory fuels on 150 acres of private property around Tait Lake.
According to a document written by Patty Johnson of the U.S. Forest Service, who applied for the grant on behalf of the Tait Lake Homeowners’ Association, the goal is to “help protect values at risk” by reducing the intensity of forest fires that might reach the area.
Johnson wrote, “The homeowners in the area have been very active in doing fuels reduction work on their own private property in addition to acquiring fire suppression equipment to be prepared in the case of a wildfire event. … The overall purpose is to promote landscape treatments across federal, state, local, and private ownership boundaries.”
Grant dollars may be used to remove hazardous fuels such as dead and down vegetation, dead or dying overstory trees, and ladder fuels in the understory. The process could include removing balsam fir and thinning and pruning pine. Overstory can be removed if necessary to operate machinery or if it shows signs of insect infestation or disease or will die off in the next 10 years. A 100-foot notreatment buffer along the Tait River is recommended.
Because the project is funded through stimulus dollars, contractors must be hired to complete the work. Homeowners will choose their own contractors, who must follow Minnesota Forest Management Guidelines developed by the Minnesota Forest Resources Council under a mandate of Minnesota’s Sustainable Forest Resources Act of 1995.
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