Burn barrel question...

[jyoutz]

I don’t mess with burning trash; too much non combustible stuff in trash that just makes a mess to dispose of afterwards. I do burn very large brush piles in the winter. I wait for about 4-8” of snow, add a little diesel and old motor oil and light it up. I do have to call the county fire department to inform them that I’m burning and cannot do it on no-burn days. Snow cover gets around the no burn days and also the need to babysit the burn pile.

 

[ultrarunner]

Grew up with pine needle incinerator permits at $2 for the year…


I’d collect maybe 60 stuffed grocery bags for my grandmother to incinerate…

About 30 years ago burning banned and leaving the needles encouraged for erosion and to enhance the soil…

Then came several huge Tahoe fires burning for weeks so now needles are again raked for municipal pickup and each parcel pays a fee…

 

[jyoutz]

Grew up with pine needle incinerator permits at $2 for the year…


I’d collect maybe 60 stuffed grocery bags for my grandmother to incinerate…

About 30 years ago burning banned and leaving the needles encouraged for erosion and to enhance the soil…

Then came several huge Tahoe fires burning for weeks so now needles are again raked for municipal pickup and each parcel pays a fee…

Pine needles don’t provide much soil nutrients until they are recycled by fire. The natural recycling of nutrients in western coniferous forests is periodic fire. Otherwise they accumulate and don’t break down in the dry environment. Overtime the annual accumulation builds up and becomes hazardous fuels.

 

[ultrarunner]

Pine needles don’t provide much soil nutrients until they are recycled by fire. The natural recycling of nutrients in western coniferous forests is periodic fire. Otherwise they accumulate and don’t break down in the dry environment. Overtime the annual accumulation builds up and becomes hazardous fuels.

Yep… craziest thing when Tahoe went with the natural forest duff after years of grooming/raking parcels… to bare dirt for fuel reduction.

Then a study came out saying Tahoe clarity suffering from runoff so no more bare dirt.

 

[jyoutz]

Yep… craziest thing when Tahoe went with the natural forest duff after years of grooming/raking parcels… to bare dirt for fuel reduction.

Then a study came out saying Tahoe clarity suffering from runoff so no more bare dirt.

Establishing grass instead of bare dirt is the solution to water quality.

 

[ultrarunner]

Grass is also banned as in a beautiful lawn around the homestead…

Two reasons… outdoor water restrictions and lawn chemicals…

TARP had broad powers and as the lake is in 2 states it’s even more far reaching…

Bears roam free and I have several times had the cabin ransacked by bear(s) and twice propane line at tank busted… yet can’t harm or scare the bears

 

[jyoutz]

Grass is also banned as in a beautiful lawn around the homestead…

Two reasons… outdoor water restrictions and lawn chemicals…

TARP had broad powers and as the lake is in 2 states it’s even more far reaching…

Bears roam free and I have several times had the cabin ransacked by bear(s) and twice propane line at tank busted… yet can’t harm or scare the bears

Native grass is the answer.

 

[MossRoad]

Establishing grass instead of bare dirt is the solution to water quality.

You ever grow grass under pines?

 

[jyoutz]

You ever grow grass under pines?

Ponderosa pine forests in the west a very grassy understory. The same with Longleaf pine forests in the southeast.

Attached is a photo from near the Los Alamos area during a fall cone collection day. And another of me standing by a large tree. Lots of native grasses.

 

[ultrarunner]

Native grass is the answer.

Tahoe really doesn’t have native grass outside meadows with ample water… the soil is basically sand or decomposed granite and forested with ponderosa pine…