Smoke alert: managed burns in Sonoma Valley this weekend

Thirty-five acres of oak grassland along Highway 12 near Glen Ellen will undergo prescribed burning this weekend, a land management strategy that benefits the native habitat while reducing wildfire risk. It also sends a good deal of smoke into the air, but don’t be alarmed. 

Bouverie Preserve and Glen Oaks Ranch Preserve are the targeted areas. The prescribed burns will start as early as 10am on Friday, June 23 and conclude around  5pm on Monday, June 26.

Both properties have frontage along Sonoma Highway 12, making this burn visible from the road; travelers in the area may see smoke in the air and prescribed fire activities, such as blacklining, broadcast burning, and spot-fire training. The burns will be conducted by prescribed fire managers from Audubon Canyon  Ranch’s Fire Forward program, with support from Sonoma Land Trust, the Good Fire Alliance, the Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative, CAL FIRE, and Sonoma Valley Fire and Rescue Authority.

Crews will ensure the burns are 100% out by the end of the operating period. 

Bouverie Preserve is located at 13815 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen. Since 2016, prescribed burning has been used on the preserve to support ecosystem health. Twenty-five acres of oak savannah are scheduled for treatment with the goal of removing medusahead  grass, a non-native, annual grass considered highly invasive by California Invasive Plant Council.

Sonoma Land Trust’s Glen Oaks Ranch Preserve is at 13255 Sonoma Highway, near the intersection of Arnold Drive. The preserve is critical habitat for hundreds of native plant and animal species and is an important link in the Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor, a network of protected lands that allows wildlife to move between the Mayacamas and Sonoma Mountain. 

The two units scheduled for prescribed burning consist of oak woodland with an understory of  grass and sparse shrubs. The strategic use of low-intensity fire provides oak seedlings the conditions to reproduce, it reduces invasive plants and makes room for the native plants that wildlife depend on to survive.