California Forest Fires

[Uncle Sam]

To All,

The California drought and forest fires have been in the news media for many months now, so this post is about the fire only. I will leave my thoughts on the drought for another post. The reporters for the news media have a natural inclination to exaggerate everything. Since I have lived and worked in California’s Great Central Valley within 50 miles of the aptly named “Rough Fire” for over 50 years now, I wanted to try to bring a little perspective to all the media attention given to these circumstances.

Lindsay is located on the eastern edge of the Central Valley at an elevation of 350 feet above sea level and I can look out my back window and see the beginnings of the Sierra Nevada Mountains within a few miles of my house. The Sierra Nevada range is roughly 50-70 miles wide running along the eastern border of the State of California and runs from south of Bakersfield (60 miles south of Lindsay) to the Oregon border in the north; about 500 miles in a north-north-westerly direction. That equates to a mountainous area of approximately 25000 to 35000 square miles!!! The highest mountain in the continental U.S. is Mt Whitney (at over 14,000 feet) near the southern end and at the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada's. Mt Shasta (an inactive volcano cone) is also over 14000 feet and near the northern end. Mt Whitney is 50 miles from where I live as the crow flies and 150 miles if I wanted to drive there and hike up to the top. There few roads across the Sierras because of the many peaks over 10,000 feet and the very steep canyons in between. It is very rough country indeed.

The “Rough Fire”, which is still burning and not contained, is 50 miles northeast of me and has burned almost 90,000 acres (140 square miles) of some very rough country. (It is not much when compared to the total mountainous area.) The fire was started by Mother Nature (lightning) at the top of a mountain and burned down into the Kings River canyon, jumped the river, and up the other side of the canyon burning toward Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park. As stated above there are few roads into this country and very few structures to burn. It is essentially a wilderness area and has not burnt off for almost 100 years. There are layers of dead trees, dead brush, and dead leaves and grass that provide plenty of fuel to support the fire as it moves along. The smoke from this fire covers the mountains so we cannot see them and does come into the valley now and then.
Cont'd

 

[Uncle Sam]

On a personal note my grandson was working at the Hume Lake Christian Camp facility which includes not only the Camp buildings, but many privately owned homes and cabins in a mountain community. There is a man-made lake there left over from a sawmill that was in operation years ago. All of these buildings and homes were in the path of this fire; things looked pretty grim for a week or so for its complete destruction by the fire. With the help of about 2000 fire fighters on the ground working by hand and using bulldozers, fire breaks were built around the buildings so back fires could be set when the proper time arrived to blunt the forest fire. Everything worked to perfection and the Camp and all the homes were spared. Since there were very few roads to use in fighting the main fire, big helicopters with a tank for carrying water and using a snorkel to dip into the lake to fill the tank, water could be dumped on the fire to help keep the fire away from any buildings. Also used are big tanker airplanes that flew off an airport 15 miles south of us that dropped fire retardant on the fire. Even though the fire is still burning as I write this it is mostly in a wilderness area of the Sierras.

Some may view the fire as a bad or disastrous occurrence that shouldn’t have happened (like the media and forest service types), but it was started by natural causes which probably should be accepted. I look at it as “Forest Renewal” since it gets rid of all the dead fuel that has built up over the years. Before the forest service’s efforts to “manage” all our mountains and wilderness areas, I am sure there were periodic fires that burned for months until they ran out of fuel or rain finally put them out. As a matter of interest the seeds of our giant Sequoia trees will not pop open and grow until they have been burned by a fire. The bark of a Sequoia is very thick and resistant to fire damage. Periodic fires keep the brush and young pine and fir seedlings thinned out so they do not take nutrients that should be used by the bigger trees. We will have a healthier forest if we would let Mother Nature alone and accept what is started naturally.

Uncle Sam

 

[mac]

Thanks for the report. I would like to suggest that the fires are bigger now because of the tree huggers. Yes, you read that right. The lumber companies used to be allowed to go on forest land and remove dead trees and/or thin them out. Well that was too much for the tree huggers. Plus it imperiled some spotted owl. So the lumber companies stopped and the dead trees accumulated so much that when a fire does start, it's a big one. Some of the pine tree species actually need fire for their seeds to mature properly. But out environmental activists are sooo much smarter than Mother Nature. Cripes, they even changed the name of Smokey the Bear to just Smokey Bear.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Maybe Smokey "The" Bear was burned to death in one of the fires. That would make him just a "Smokey Bear". Think Mac, think...

 

[Randy]

Here’s your little history lesson for the day http://southernnewmexico.com/Articles/Southeast/Lincoln/Capitan/SmokeyBear.html

In the state of Washington there are currently 13 wild fires burning. http://gacc.nifc.gov/nwcc/ The fire is costing upwards of $150 Million a week to fight these fires. They have brought in fire crews from New Zealand, Australia, mobilized and trained 200 Army Soldiers, there are hundreds of volunteers helping to put these fires and have mobilized the Washington National Guard Helicopter crews to drop water. God only knows how many structures/homes have been burned. I live 150 miles or so from the fires and when the wind is right I get thick smoke at my house, it was real heavy the other day.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I just looked at a web site that shows all the fires in the western U.S.; there are more fires in Idaho than anywhere else by quite a bit. It happens every year in the mountainous areas of the western states and is part of Nature's renewal. With the mind-set of the media types, it seems we just seem to lurch from one "crisis" to another; it's El Nino, then it's floods, then it is drought, then it is fires, then it is whatever is the "flavor" of the month!!!

Mac---I certainly agree with your thoughts on this. Unfortunately the "younger generation" span of history began the day they were born and they haven't studied history or learned anything in school or in college so they can have some perspective. They seem to have no concept of how Mother Nature works!!!

Randy----It gets pretty dry in eastern Washington just like it does here in California; it is just not so mountainous, but it is still hard contain a fire once there is lots of fuel to burn and the winds blow. We'll survive it all and eventually the burned off area will produce more trees that we can utilize if we allowed to by the bureaucrats.

Uncle Sam

 

[Uncle Sam]

California Fire Update

A reporter for a newspaper in Fresno stumbled across a news article in their archives from 60 years ago in 1955. The article was reporting on a fire in the Sierras that was almost in the same location as the “Rough” fire now burning and previously posted. It was in September, 1955 (rather than July-August) so the temperatures in California were very hot. (Los Angeles was 110 while Fresno was only 108 degrees) No one knew how it started but it moved fast and burned a large area. All of these fires in the Sierras are a natural and normal occurrence; it is Mother Nature’s way of cleaning up the downed trees and brush that accumulates from each winter’s rainfall and spring growth. It is a renewing of the forest that needs to take place periodically.
The article included some numbers about the total acreage of the wild fires in California from years past. The approximate acreage burned in 1945 was 500,000 when not much fire-fighting was done; in 1955 it was 300,000 acres when some fire-fighting was done, but only 10 years since the previous fires so maybe there was not so much fuel to feed the fires. Now in 2015 it is already estimated at 700,000 acres and the season is not over. It is also 60 years since the last major fire, so there is (or was) a large amount of dead trees and fuel stacked up on the ground. Whatever it is, when looked as a percentage of the total acreage of the State of California (104+million) it is 0.5-0.66%; a rather small area.
Those people that live and build out in the forest areas to enjoy the life style are certainly free to do so, but have to accept that this will be risky if a fire does come through. Special fire-proof materials and keeping the area cleared of trees and brush each year will lower the risk of loss. Don’t mess with Mother Nature’s ways; she doesn’t play favorites

Uncle Sam

 

[MEP001]

It's not only a renewal of areas, some pine trees will just die off without proliferating if they never see fire.

 

[Uncle Sam]

MEP001---You quite right in your statement about pine trees.

The “Rough” fire, which is 50 miles from me, is almost contained, but is burning in some very remote and steep mountains. It continues to burn slowly in the leaves, pine needles, and grass (called duff) that has dried and accumulated on the ground beneath the trees. It may burn for a long time until the rains come and put it out.

I came across a web site that reports on these fires in the mountains and keeps statistics on the history of what is or has burned over the years. There is a researcher from the University of California, Berkeley, who is studying an area in Yosemite that has burned periodically to see what effect the fires have on the health of the trees and meadows. Preliminary results show that periodic fires renew the forest and meadows so they produce stronger trees and larger meadows to support more wild life. As part of this study and to add perspective, the Annual Average Acres Burned in California was put into a graph to show the dramatic change in fires from 1800 to the period from 1960 to 2000 when the Forest Service tried to suppress all fires in the mountains. In 1800 there were 1.75 million acres burned in California when no fire suppression was used. Jump forward to 1960-2000 (when fire suppression began) where there was an average of 75,000 to 125,000 acres burned per year. (These numbers differ considerable from the numbers quoted in the 1955 newspaper article posted above) I have no idea how the figure for 1800 was derived; I just accept it. The State of California covers a total of 104+ million acres, so you can get some kind of perspective from that number.

Whatever the numbers say about the history of fires, most observers do agree that our forest trees and meadows are not near as healthy as they used to be. There used to be many of what are called “controlled burns” started by the Forest Service in the mountains to burn off areas to prevent the dead trees and brush from getting too heavy. Now they are stopped by the Air Pollution Control Agency because of the smoke and pollutants put into the air. Instead of a win-win situation with a healthy forest, we have a win-lose situation and an unhealthy forest!!

Uncle Sam

 

[MEP001]

Some local group of tree huggers is trying to put a stop to barbecue places burning wood inside the city limits for cooking.

 

[soapy]

I am here in Idaho and we have had a few fires for sure. We get forest fires and range fires. Range fires consist of large expanses of sage brush and sheet grass. Open range is generally kept in check by letting cattle graze on the range and they eat the sheet grass keeping the fire fuel down. The large fire in western Idaho was mostly range land that the BLM has not let ranchers graze their cattle on for a few years. Lots of built up fuel led to this fire. The pine forests here go through periods when the pine bark beetle will kill off large patches of timber. It used to be that loggers could go in and harvest the dead trees and replant new trees. Tree huggers have pretty much put an end to this practice so now we have lots of dead trees just waiting to erupt in fire.

 

[Uncle Sam]

The latest online information from the State Fire Headquarters says that all the major fires are contained but still may be burning at a low intensity. The weather is cooling and there are rain showers in the mountains, but everything is still very dry. Some of my friends here in town have been fighting the fires with equipment they own, but they are not back yet for any conversation about what they have seen. May have another update about the result of the fires after they get back into town.

Uncle Sam

 

[Uncle Sam]

The weather has cooled down here in California and some rains have begun to fall so the fires are fading away. Fires will come again next year to "clean up the forest and brush lands" and the crisis will return instead of people accepting fires as the most natural thing that is good for the environment. Attention spans are very short!!!

Uncle Sam