Neighbors can expect to continue seeing smoke coming from west of Reno over the next few days due to prescribed burning.
The Forest Service is asking residents to not call 911.
Crews plan to burn a little more than 650 acres this week.
Fire crews say prescribed burns like this are extremely important for both the community and the environment.
"When you burn the litter like this it releases nutrients into the soil which helps forage for the deer and other animals and opens up the canopy for like the owls to go hunting and the hawks and everything.," said Travis Shoemaker, senior fuels tech for Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.
As for the community, Shoemaker says prescribed burns lessen the impacts when wildfires do break out, allowing firefighters to have more control, access, and safety.
They're burning about 284 acres on Tuesday and using all kinds of equipment to thin out vegetation.
"We usually can't just go put fire to the ground, we have to come out and thin it with masticators or chainsaws. Then we'll do a few pile burns to lessen the fuel loading," Shoemaker explains.
After that is when they'll do the understory burns where the trees are left alone but everything else is burned on the ground, using torches and water hoses to maintain it.
As long as the weather allows it, this process will continue for the rest of the week.
"We plan to be burning for the next couple days, then from there we'll be in mop up operation, so it could take up to a week before all the smoke's out of the area," said Jed Rudelbach, fuels specialist.
Fire crews say they don't close the roads since this is a planned event, so people are welcomed to observe from a distance.
"Folks that do want to come and check out the roads and the burn just please keep in mind that folks are working out here and the visibility is low so safety for all our workers out here would be greatly appreciated," says Shoemaker.
Once again if you see smoke coming from the mountains west of Reno you are asked to not call 911.
