The number of large-diameter trees in Yosemite National Park have declined 24-percent between the 1930s and 1990s.

The findings are based on a study done by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington. Scientists compared tree densities from 1932-1936 to those from 1988-1999 where large-diameter trees are those with a diameter greater than three feet.

Along with large-diameter tree loss, they also found a shift to fire-intolerant trees. Amazingly, this shift was experienced in areas that hadn’t seen a wildfire in nearly a century. Trees changed from fire-tolerant ponderosa pines to fire-intolerant white fir and incense cedar. In burned areas, however, the pines remained dominant.

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Four years ago, a devastating fire spread across my property.  We were told by locals, foresters, loggers, and USDA conservationists that we needed to log the burned land.  We were told that the bugs would come and ruin the timber anyways and then kill the trees that had survived.  We were told that our property would be in greater fire risk danger if we did not remove dead timber, and we were encouraged to take out living trees that were predicted not to survive.  The loggers told us we would make about $60,000 logging 80 acres, but they didn’t tell us that sawmills automatically lower prices when a fire occurs and it would cost $40,000 to replant this same land.  We proceeded with the expedited timber harvest plan, only to pull the plug on the salvage operation after 12 acres.

Our property is now the perfect case study of what happens when a burned area is left alone or salvage logged. In the areas that were logged, invasive species of brush have grown enthusiastically, and we had to replant with nursery stock.  Natural regeneration was wiped out by the heavy logging equipment, and this part of our land is a mess.  In the areas that were left alone after the fire, the rate of natural regeneration of mixed conifer species was incredible and required no replanting and little removal of invasive weed species.  The living trees in the burn that were predicted to die by the foresters are still living today, and the bugs came and went. 

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Year after year, Bush has cut funding from the USFS, yet within this budget, more money is allocated for fire management and less for fire prevention.  In February, 2008, Bush proposed decreasing fire preparedness monies by 11 percent. Although the budget calls for a $150 million increase for extinguishing blazes, prevention funding is slashed by $77 million, including a $13 million reduction in small fuels removal. Similar cuts were proposed in 2007.  Casey Judd, business manager for the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, a firefighter employee group explains, “The administration still has it backward. Preparedness should be the focus, not suppression.”   Norm Dicks, D-Wash., adds, “Common sense would be that if you put more money into fuel reduction, it’s going to have an effect on having less severe fires.”  The White House response was that money could be shifted between the agency’s firefighting and fire suppression accounts, as needed.  This is exactly what concerns USFS employees with the current California wildfires.

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July 19, 2008:  Fires in Hyampom Still Crackling

Could we flip back through history to a hundred-thousand years before Columbus or ten minutes before landfall, we would find immense forests, some three-hundred feet tall and thirty-five feet around, most of the forests appearing like a manicured Federal Park, clear of underbrush, deaf falls and dry limbs and needles and leaves turning to duff just waiting for a spark.

The forests, like most life on this continent, were not an accident.  That they looked like they were manicured is because they had been forever before the penetration of Europeans.  Forests were full of life and were like a super market for the natives.  Animals, birds, eggs, nuts, excitement and adventure flourished everywhere.  It was a duty for the natives to clean the forests and encourage life to visit there, and it was an honor to “talk for” the forests in ceremony and prayer.  Loving earth with a deep respect has always been the “way” of mountain and coast indigenous.

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These fires started naturally and are probably the kind of fires that occurred naturally before massive fire suppression efforts began in the west a hundred years ago. After a nice Memorial day soaking, the foliage here was pretty green when the lightning struck.  These fires have been smoldering and cleaning up the forest, except where they are threatening homes. Klamath-Siskiyou Wild explains it best:

Fire has been an integral component to the function of biodiversity for millennia. Fires burn in a diversity of patterns and intensities, and are influenced by numerous factors such as fuels, temperature, terrain and moisture. Many of these fires are close to communities and firefighters are doing their best to protect lives and property. Once the smoke has cleared, we may find that many of these fires in back country forests were ecologically beneficial as fire clears out understory vegetation, burns a natural mosaic pattern and leaves behind a healthier forest.

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Now brings you:
*A solution to floods and fires

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On Saturday, I called 911 twice to report seven fires, six of which only appeared on a map yesterday! I called CalFire, the United States Forest Service (two ranger districts), the Humboldt County Sheriff Department, the Trinity County Sheriff Department, and our local volunteer fire department. I wanted to know what road I could take out of our valley if I needed to escape the firestorm. The response, “Ma’am, there are fires everywhere. We don’t know where they are or what roads are open.” I felt trapped, and we began putting dozer lines around our meadow, hooking up more sprinklers, and connecting fire hoses to the pump in our pond.

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