Weather permitting, the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team may conduct prescribed fire operations this week, on the north end of Lake Tahoe. Prescribed fire operations reduce overgrown vegetation, which helps decrease the severity of future wildland fires, protects communities, reduces the risk of insect and disease outbreaks in our forests, recycles nutrients that increases soil productivity and improves wildlife habitat. After nearly a century of fire exclusion in the Sierra Nevada, prescribed fire operations also re-introduce fire back onto the landscape, which helps restore vital ecosystem functions and improves forest health and resiliency. Each prescribed fire operation follows a specialized prescribed fire burn plan, which considers temperature, humidity, wind, moisture of the vegetation, and conditions for the dispersal of smoke.