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boboyle@sierrasun.com
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. – Above Matchless Court in the First Creek drainage, new technology is chipping away at the vegetation and trees ecologically, efficiently, and safely.
Two remote-controlled BurnBots RCU75s showcased precision mastication Wednesday as part of a demonstration hosted at the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation by the Tahoe Fund and regional partners including the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, and the Martis Fund.
“This thing can do 10 times what hand crews can do,” said BurnBot CEO Anukool Lakhina. “BurnBots mission is to make destructive wildfires a thing of the past.”
BurnBot is a new, innovative tool created to help increase the pace and scale of forest restoration. It weighs about 7,500 pounds.
BurnBots masticate or mulch the forest. It is a fuel-reduction treatment method to reduce wildfire risk and fuel loading by returning the forest to natural conditions.
“If we continue to do things the way we always have, we should expect the same results,” said former CAL Fire chief deputy director Chris Anthony who moderated the panel. “That’s not acceptable.”
The $50,000 project will remove 75% of the vegetation on 22 acres in 2 to 3 days. This would have taken 1 hand crew or 20 firefighters 15 days.
“Twenty-two acres in 3 days is really tremendous,” said Tahoe Fund CEO Amy Berry. “… you can’t have that level of efficiency from a hand crew.”
BurnBot was created to complement human efforts and address the needed scale of fuels reduction and management, according to BurnBot’s website. BurnBot handles rough conditions and goes where most other machinery can’t. It does difficult mitigation jobs, and works in thick brush, including trees up to 8 feet in diameter and terrain up to 60 degrees.
BurnBot creates defensible space, infrastructure right-of-way clearance, vegetation removal, firebreak maintenance, invasive species removal, land clearing, and fire/fuel breaks.
“Our mission is so large … you could put all of planet Earth on this and still it wouldn’t be done,” said Lakhina.
Lakhina added that there’s not infinite time so he helped invent BurnBot.
“I think it’s really good technology,” said North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief Ryan Sommers. “I like that they recognize a problem and that they have a solution.”
The problem, Berry said, is the composition of our forests changed. Forests are overly dense and dying because of it.
The Tahoe Basin has 22 million more trees than a healthy forest should, Berry said in a 2023 Tahoe Daily Tribune opinion piece.
As a panelist before the demonstration, Berry spoke about the progression of the Tahoe forest.
The Washoe Tribe stewarded a healthy and thriving Tahoe forest, whose traditional ecological practices let the landscape thin and regenerate.
In the 1800s, logging and mining clear-cut the Basin. When the forest grew back all at once, it eliminated the variety of trees and changed the diversity of species. Then firefighting agencies adopted a suppression-first policy leading to unchecked overgrowth.
“Now, we have a forest with too many trees that are competing for a very limited supply of water and sunlight,” Berry wrote. “This leaves them prone to disease, infestation, and mortality, which in turn, makes them extremely potent fuel for catastrophic wildfire.”
There are about 300 trees per acre in Tahoe, according to Land Tender. When the forest was healthier, there were 25 trees per acre.
“We plan on using (BurnBot) when we can,” Sommers said.
Next week, Incline Village and Crystal Bay will add 60 seasonal firefighters.
“We can increase the pace and scale of the fuels work needed working in conjunction with technology such as BurnBot,” Sommers said.
In 2023, the firefighters cut and treated 200 acres plus 35 acres of prescribed burns. They are on fire calls about 100 days a year.
Placer County Supervisor Cindy Gustafson said she’s passionate about finding solutions for a healthy forest.
“It’s amazing,” said Gustafson, a Tahoe Fund board member. “It’s another tool in our kit to how we treat the forest and do it more efficiently and effectively. We can get more acres treated.”
The BurnBot team will return in the fall to do a fully enclosed prescribed fire to prepare the land for when a natural fire occurs.
It will cost an additional $50,000.
“Tahoe is such a sanctuary,” said Lakhina. “It is painful to watch town after town get destroyed by fires.”
Brenna O’Boyle enjoys covering Lake Tahoe entertainment. Her beat includes Incline Village, Kings Beach and Tahoe City. She loves to write travel pieces and report on food/alcohol-related events. Brenna is also a Reno Public Art Committee member who identifies, reviews, and recommends artists for public art opportunities.
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