North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District is working on a fire fuel mitigation project in Incline Village north of the Mount Rose Highway.
NLTFPD shared this map showing phases one and two of "The Worm", as well as affected land owned by the Incline Village General Improvement District.
The project is nicknamed "The Worm" thanks to the winding shape it takes through the forest.
Phase One will cover more than 60 acres this summer, and phase two kicks off next July.
NLTFPD hopes to wrap up phase one in the next couple weeks. Chief Ryan Sommers says they're working with BurnBot, a private company providing the remote-controlled equipment used to mitigate possible fire fuels.
Chief Sommers says the equipment has sped up the project dramatically.
"They can cover, for example, 22 acres in about three days," Chief Sommers says, "Where it would take us almost two weeks to do that [by hand]."
The goal of "The Worm" is to remove vegetation in a 132-foot-wide buffer zone of defensible space around neighborhoods north of Nevada State Route 431. Both phases combined will cover over 140 acres of land owned by the Incline Village General Improvement District (IVGID).
IVGID trustee David Noble says their teamwork with North Lake Tahoe Fire goes beyond giving them access to the land.
"We're fully funding this project this year," Noble says, "And we're very excited to see this happen."
BurnBot's remote masticators chew through most of the vegetation in the buffer zone, but they'll leave about 10-15% of native brush to protect the natural habitat near Lake Tahoe.
BurnBot program manager Lex Nelson says their remote masticators work by mulching or chopping away at smaller plants.
"We're not deploying any fire on the ground," Nelson says, "it is all strictly mastication."
A few locals have taken notice of the project. Joe Hill says having a big machine chewing up vegetation nearby can be nerve-racking, but it also helps his peace of mind.
"I've lived here long enough to deal with the Angora Fire and the Caldor Fire in recent years," Hill says, "So it's really great to have a project like this come through on a neighborhood-wide scale to do more defensible space."
Lorna den Daas says she was amazed at how quiet and unobtrusive BurnBot's equipment was.
"Most days we didn't even know they were here," den Daas says, "And we literally live, you know, right here on this cliff."
IVGID says this is a recurring project. Once the vegetation grows back in a few years' time, North Lake Tahoe Fire will return to the area to start the process over again.
"We plan to work with the fire department to have them to come back on a periodic basis to re-treat the acres again," Noble says.
