Grass Valley hears PG&E-sponsored Burnbot pilot for Loma Rica parcels; Nov. 6 demo planned

City staff presented details of a PG&E-sponsored pilot to test a remote, low-smoke burning technology called Burnbot on city-owned parcels in Loma Rica.

Dwayne Strosser, the city—s Community Risk Reduction Manager, said the project pairs recent mastication work with a Burnbot treatment that PG&E is funding. "They came in and pre-masticated their side; we masticated the private property side with permission," Strosser said, describing two "like-for-like" 14-acre treatment areas north and south of Wolf Creek adjacent to Idaho-Maryland Road and Brunswick. He said the work also clears roadside vegetation along an identified priority evacuation route.

Strosser said agencies including Cal Fire and the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District have…