UKIAH, Calif. — The Bureau of Land Management Ukiah Field Office, in cooperation with CAL FIRE Lake Napa Unit, the Tribal EcoResotration Alliance (TERA), Mendocino National Forest and Lake County District 5, plans to conduct prescribed fire operations in the Black Forest along Soda Bay Road, on the northeast side of Mount Konocti in Kelseyville, Lake County. Pile burn operations are scheduled to start April 14 and may continue periodically through May 30. Burning will take place only when weather and fuel moisture allow for safe and successful burning.

The prescribed fire is part of a shaded fuel break initiated in 2008 to protect communities. The project will remove hazardous fuels that could feed fires within this wildland-urban interface, where public lands meet urban development. Approximately 36 acres of undergrowth and small trees have been hand-thinned by firefighters and piled over the last three years. The operation aims to burn approximately 500 piles covering the entire shaded fuel break.

The Black Forest, a pristine Douglas fir forest, encompasses approximately 242 acres of BLM-managed public lands and supports many plants and species as well as valuable cultural resources and an important watershed

The BLM is committed to keeping public landscapes healthy and productive. More information is available from the BLM Ukiah Field Office at 707-468-4000.

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Trials & Litigation

Lawyer seeks damages after his snowmobile crashes into Black Hawk helicopter

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 6, 2024, 10:01 am CST

A Massachusetts lawyer is awaiting a judge’s decision following a bench trial in his $9.5 million lawsuit alleging that the military was negligent for leaving a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on a snowmobile route at dusk.

Jeffrey Smith of Massachusetts, a 43-year-old “small-town real estate lawyer” at the time of the March 2019 crash, said the unlit camouflaged helicopter was on an abandoned air strip in Worthington, Massachusetts, MassLive.com reports.

Smith’s injuries included 12 broken ribs and a punctured lung. He has undergone several surgeries, and he has lost most of the feeling on his left side, according to his lawyers.

“The last five years, there’s been surgery, recovery, surgery, recovery,” Smith told the Associated Press.

He works only part time, and he can’t use his left arm since the crash, he said.

Smith also sued the owner of the airfield, who settled for an undisclosed amount.

The government has argued that it can’t be sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act because the training crew’s conduct was policy-related. U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni of the District of Massachusetts rejected the government’s argument, made in a motion for summary judgment, in July 2022.

At the January bench trial, the government argued that Smith was wearing tinted goggles after dusk, and he told investigators that he was aware that a helicopter was in the area. Smith’s estimated speed was 65 miles per hour, and his blood alcohol level was slightly below the legal limit, they argued.

In Smith’s proposed findings of fact, he said his speed was was between 26 miles per hour to 39 miles per hour, as determined by his expert. Before the accident, he had consumed two beers, two Adderall and one Suboxone that had been prescribed by his doctor. A witness said he was not intoxicated.

“When Mr. Smith finally was able to see the helicopter, it was too late,” according to the proposed findings of fact.