What is PAL?
Project Activity Level (PAL) is a fire-safety decision support tool designed to help determine which mechanized activities are permitted within certain parts of the forest on any given day. The main emphasis of PAL is related to commercial and industrial activities within the forest such as timber harvest or larger scale construction.
For the LPFA, we are primarily using PAL to determine how long we can run power tools for trail maintenance and our smaller scape forest projects. Many of the PAL definitions don’t directly apply to what we are doing and there is some gray area when defining our activities within the PAL structure. When in doubt, either contact the LPFA Executive Director or the Forest Service staff in charge of your project and when in doubt, always err on the side of caution and go with the stricter PAL definition.
Steps to Determine PAL:
- Estimated PAL California – start by clicking this link. This page is a summary of PAL levels at commonly visited sites across the Los Padres. It shows current PAL levels, as well as predictions for the following day.
- Click here for a PDF showing the list of PAL definitions. Locate the corresponding PAL letter for your work area and follow the defined requirements. Please periodically read the entire PDF as there is a lot of valuable safety information included.
Frequently Used Areas:
- Santa Barbara Frontcountry – #514
- Santa Barbara Mid & Backcountry – #586
- Figueroa Mountain Zone – #585
- Ojai Frontcountry – #650
Additional Information:
- One technique we commonly use if the saws need to stop at a certain time is to work until that time using the saws and then take lunch within your project area and use the afternoon to swamp your project area. This will allow you to be more efficient with the tool use and also remain on site as a monitor for some hours following saw activities.
