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December 4, 2009

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Smoke from a controlled burn of dead trees

Thursday, June 10, 1999 | 3:06 a.m.

It's coming from a controlled burn at Spooner Summit, where U.S. 50 and Nevada 28 intersect.

Crews are intentionally torching dead trees and underbrush to remove the potential fuel in case there's an unintentional fire later this year.

The smoke is following highway 50 down the mountain and into the valleys below.

"We'd like to do more spring burning, because it's more conducive for smoke management," said Mark Johnson, fire management officer for the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

"The problem is there is a narrow window. We have to wait for the snow to melt, and it gets dry really quick. There was snow on parts of this site just a week ago."

The Forest Service started a 350-acre burn Wednesday between Spooner Lake and Glenbrook. Called the Captain Pomin Prescribed Burn - because of a so-called Captain Pomin Rock in the area - the prescribed fire could last between seven and 15 days, Johnson estimated.

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