Fire
While I hesitate to write a blog that may be political in nature, I believe it is important to address the recent comments by President Trump regarding California Wildfires. His tweet
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!
is inherently misleading and conflates what are two separate issues. First, there is plenty of water to fight these fires as witnessed by the numerous times we saw helicopters over our house carrying water to the Ferguson fire and other fires before it. This was also backed up by a statement from California Fire Officials who said, “water supplies are not the problem.”
Trump’s further statement that water is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean is just plain stupid. Yes, water flows into the Pacific Ocean in what are called rivers or at least it used to be that way. Now the only water that reaches the sea is what is left after farms and cities have taken their share. Water use and management is a big issue in California but it does not impact California's firefighters ability to fight wildfires in any way.
Second, that the environmental laws are causing this and that tree clearing must be used to stop the fire from spreading is a attempt to promote more commercial logging in the National Forests. What is needed is proper forest management and government money to help provide for it.
Proper forest management includes prescribed burns and removal of hazard trees. Prescribed burns remove the ladder fuels (weeds and other growth), which can help restore nutrients and lead to more desirable and diverse plant growth and reduce wildfire activity. Removal of hazard trees are the trees that have died as a result of drought and the Pine Bark beetle. These trees when left standing or left on the forest floor can exacerbate wildfire intensity.
Fire is nature’s way of restoring the woodlands and some trees including the Giant Sequoias need fire in order to propagate. Fires have existed in these forests for years and have burned millions upon millions of acres largely unchecked by human intervention. Some would argue that the fires in the 1930’s for example were larger and more frequent.
The issue is debatable as to whether wildfire intensity is due to climate change. What I know is that temperatures are higher and there is less rainfall annually and this leads to an extremely tinder dry environment where fire intensity is magnified. If there are ways to help lower temperatures and increase rainfall then I am all for that. I believe we should allow science (and not the opinions of politicians) to lead the way on this issue.
On Foxtail Farm we have aggressively worked to clear a defensible space around our farm along with annual maintenance of clearing the regrowth of the ladder fuels. We also continue to expand the perimeter by selectively removing trees that could be hazardous or create a situation where a group of trees hasn’t enough nutrients and they all die. This year Pacific Gas and Electric is helping property owners by offering a program where they masticate a thirty foot path under the power lines that cross their property in an effort to reduce fires caused by faulty electrical equipment. I am going to call this path the “Power Line Trail” and I will thank PG&E for helping me with brush clearing and trail building on our property.
Where the Federal Government can help (outside of sending misleading tweets) is to offer more funding for fire prevention, forest management and the education of homeowners on what they can do to properly create a defensible space on their property.
This year we were evacuated from our property for a week as the firefighters worked to bring the Ferguson fire under control. While we were in no immediate danger, the air quality was extremely unhealthy and it was good to get away for an unplanned vacation (with all three dogs) to stay with our son, daughter-in-law, and our six-month-old grandson in the San Francisco bay area. I for one really appreciated the break from the business, the smoke, the anxiety of viewing smoke columns from our back deck and most importantly the opportunity to get in some “Papa” time with my grandson.
Peter