Cal Fire Is Burning 400 Acres Near Mt. Shasta This Week. Here’s What to Expect.

If you are in the Mt. Shasta area over the next few weeks, do not be alarmed by smoke on the horizon. Cal Fire is conducting a planned 400-acre prescribed burn nearby.

The operation started April 28 and may continue through May 18, depending on weather conditions. Cal Fire’s Siskiyou Unit is working with Jefferson Resource Company to burn grass, timber and oak woodland at the base of Mt. Eddy near North Old Stage Road and Davis Place, about 2.5 miles northwest of Mt. Shasta City.

The burn is designed to reduce hazardous vegetation ahead of wildfire season, clearing fuel that could feed a fast-moving fire if ignited during the dry summer months. Crews will break the project into smaller sections and only burn when conditions allow for safe control and minimal air quality impact.

Operations will run daily from roughly 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. If high winds or other unsafe conditions develop, crews will pause and reschedule. Smoke may linger for up to four days after each burn period, and the areas affected by smoke will depend on wind direction.

This is the second prescribed burn near Mt. Shasta this spring. The Forest Service completed the McBride Underburn Project about a mile north of the city in early April, burning an area just south of Everitt Memorial Highway.

Prescribed burns are a key tool in reducing wildfire risk across Northern California. Native tribes used fire to manage forests for thousands of years before the practice was suppressed by European settlement.