Our forest fire precautions

[pappy19]

Red-

You raise some very good points. The biggest issue now is that there are no logging operations at all to pay for the cost of forest management. As far as re-seeding and thinning goes, the old method of taking care of the slash on a clear cut used to be a broadcast burn, more like nature. Someone got the brilliant idea to windrow the slash and then burn. All that does is open the scarred ground for weeds and brush, and it makes the ground under the slash pile sterile from too much heat. When I would do regeration surveys as a young forester on clear cuts, I always found more seedlings on the broadcast burn areas vs windrowed and burned. I am not saying that the USFS shouldn't take the blame for making most of the mistakes. In fact one of the biggest errors they made was the transfering of foresters every 2-3 years. All that did was allow for the next forester to blame the one that set up the timber sale, no responsibility. Also, the USFS has never had much of an erosion prevention training, only erosion control. Most of the time when there was an erosion problem, it was too late to take care of the proplem. The logging industry needed to be pro-active, but alas, that might eat into their profits. All parties were remiss in this area of erosion and in the end, that was the straw.....and the enviro's won on all counts. Now you have no forest management at all, except for trying to put out fires. I wish you luck in that regard.

 

[RedDirt]

pappy,

There's still a bit of logging going on in this area but it seems like 10% 20% of what it was 30 years ago. We have one exceptional local private logging large landowner that is the epitome of what good logging should be and have been marvelous stewards of the forest. Most are not and only do what is required of them and the "managers" required too little. Unfortunately that good company has become so disgusted with the regional management that, although they are maintaining their holdings here, they are moving future operations and investments overseas, New Zealand, I think.

The broadcast burn you mention sounds like a decent practice. All I remember seeing here and Oregon was windrow and pile burns. And I also watched with misgivings the folly of the USFS rotations.

Conditions here are as severe this summer as I've seen in 30+ years and we've got a few months left to go. It was bad the last big drought but there is a lot more available fuel now.

Here's an example. A fire started 3 miles, one ridge away, late Sunday afternoon. When fire crew arrived it was 20 acres. Overnight it went to 300 acres, Monday to 1000 acres and by nightfall Tuesday it is now 2500 acres. Twenty years ago that fire would have likely been contained at 40 to 50 acres. And the scary thing is that we've have very little wind. All bets are off if the wind comes up.

Tonight one thunderstorm is marching up the Coast Range and another one up the Sierras ...I can hear thunder now...one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand...still twenty miles away...we'll see what the morrow brings.