El Dorado County still cleaning up Caldor Fire damage
POLLOCK PINES -- Flooding in Alpine County after rain on the Tamarack burn scar has El Dorado County worried about burn scars from the Caldor Fire.
The 2021 fire burned for 69 days; in that time, more than 221,000 acres were burned and 1,003 structures were destroyed.
The impacts of the fire continue to be felt nearly a year later, as Caltrans, El Dorado National Forest, Cal OES, and FEMA continue to work in damaged areas.
Caltrans was granted two emergency contracts days after the Caldor Fire was contained. The first from Pollock Pines to Sierra at Tahoe Ski Resort. The second contract from Sierra at Tahoe Ski Resort over Echo Summit toward Meyers.
The projects are 98% complete and will be completed within the month, nearly coinciding with the year anniversary of the start of the Caldor Fire.
The work included hazardous or dead tree removal, where over 10,000 trees were removed between projects along Highway 50 by Caltrans.
Erosion control, rock stabilization work, paving, sign damage, and road work are all part of the cleanup and prevention efforts by Caltrans.
"We're in really good shape in both of those projects, getting in essentially when we were able, we're almost done," said Steve Nelson, Public Information Officer for Caltrans District 3.
The concern in areas burned by wildfire was on display in Alpine County this week near Markleeville, where flash flood warnings were issued for two days. A stretch of Highway 89 in Alpine County remains closed because of severe flooding in areas burned by the Tamarack Fire last year.
A culvert under a bridge that connected part of Highway 89 to the town of Markleeville caused the infrastructure to collapse, which made it unsafe to drive over. In addition, mud and debris flowed down from hillsides weakened by the fire less than a year ago because vegetation has not yet grown back to stabilize the hillsides.
Adding to it, work that was done to clean up and repair some culverts, for example, may have been washed away due to the amount of flooding Wednesday and Thursday in some areas of the county.
These concerns are why areas burned by wildfire, like the Caldor Fire, continue to be a point of focus for crews.
The El Dorado National Forest is also working on projects to clean up and prevent further damage to Caldor Fire burn-scarred areas.
The work includes; hazard tree removal at Sierra at Tahoe Ski Resort, tree planting along Silver Fork Road, Mormon Emigrant Trail, and the Highway 88 corridor.
Soon, fuel removal will begin on 38 miles of roads in Grizzly Flats on both sides of the road.
Along with work to prevent more damage in burn-scarred areas, hazardous materials cleanup caused by burned structures continued within the national park alongside El Dorado County, California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, and FEMA.