It seems that much of California is burning again this summer. We have had a spat of really huge, terrible fires for the past few years. They are centered in the two main forest types, conifer forests in the Sierras and oak woodlands mixed with chaparral on the coastal ranges. California has historically had big, hot, fast fires in the oaks and chaparral because it grows in the arid, hot parts of California. Decades of aggressive fire suppression have resulted in the accumulated growth of vast tracts of explosively flammable brush and trees- and when it catches fire now it gets so hot and burns so fast that there isn’t much to but watch it burn. That wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t that these areas areas are also so attractive for high value homes.

I learned in grade school that the local California natives were “hunter/gatherers” with little, or no, agricultural efforts. It turns out that is far from the truth. The natives were almost entirely “farmers” but their tools were different. They used fire to manage their lands, and used naturally available habitat. The entire state has been intensively managed for tens of thousands of years using fire to shape and create resources needed by the native population. Many of the trees and plants have evolved to the point where they cannot exist without fire. Because of this, it is my opinion that the oak/chaparral fires are “natural”, expected and necessary. The problem is with the fires, it is with the fire suppression efforts and the location of infrastructure within the fire zones.

The confer forests on the east side of the state are a different story. While it is true that these forests also depend upon fire to survive (many species can’t propagate without fire and would therefore go extinct), they too need many smaller fires burning at ground level. While these forests have also been turned into fire danger zones by the over zealous application of suppression (Smokey the Bear was far too effective), as well as extensive logging and clearing that transformed the forests from mixed habitat to one consisting almost entirely of closely spaced, uniform sized trees suitable for logging.

When global warming is added to that, the rainfall decreases, causing the trees to dry and become less “robust”, allowing millions of acres to become infested with bark beetles, weakening and killing millions of trees. This set the stage for what is happening today. Once those trees catch fire they no longer burn along the ground, they catch fire like giant torches – burning hot, fast and uncontrollably. Instead of crawling along the ground it creates huge winds that launch embers and burning bark high into the sky where it carried by the winds to create new fires miles ahead of the main fire. There is no stopping these fires once the get under way, burning until the rains come. We are in another drought year, meaning that this year will be extremely dry and we will get new fires in areas that haven’t yet burned (or maybe, that were burned a couple of years ago and are now ready to explode again).

This is part of the set up for my story about our cabin. My wife’s grandfather and father build a little, very rustic, cabin in the Sierras on the way to Lake Tahoe at around 1925. The cabin was built on a 99 year lease from the forest service with the understanding that we had a responsibility to maintain it until we either sold it or tore it down. About five years ago we encountered a major problem because cabin was built on a bluff overlooking the river, and changes to the drainage caused a lot of the bluff to slide into the river, threatening our cabin. The forest service said we had to fix it our tear the cabin down and leave. After a lot of money doing geologic surveys, engineering studies and whatnot the forest service decided that it couldn’t be fixed, and there our lease was canceled and we had to clear the property, putting it back to the original condition. We had of course enlarged the cabin, installed concrete foundations, installed a septic tank and leach lines, etc. After spending close to $100,000 we were allowed to go on our way. We took the things that we cared about, purchased another cabin located about 120 miles as the crow flies north. It was very traumatic and sad to have to do this, but “such is life” as my mother used to say.

Then this year of new fires came along. Our new cabin was right in line with the path of the largest fire in California’s history, but luckily (so far) the fire split and went around the part of the lake where we are located. We were lucky this time, the fire spared our cabin and the neighborhood where it is located. At the same time, a huge fire started to the west of the location of our old cabin and roared up the river canyon, totally overtaking the cabin site and all of the cabins in that area. We haven’t heard, but assume that the neighboring cabins have been burned to the ground.

So, I have noticed that it is one of those odd things. If our cabin hadn’t been threatened with sliding off of the hill we would still have been there. It would now all be ash. However, since we were forced to move, we still have a cabin and all of the personal treasures. It seemed bad, but now it seems good. It would have been best to not spend the $100,000 but during that time our new cabin has increased in value by more than that amount (and probably more that it is still standing in the middle of healthy forest that is now surrounded by black trees). So in the long run we got our money back, saved the family treasures, didn’t have to panic over a fire evacuation, and have a nice cabin on the lake. It is certainly hard to know when events are positive or negative, they can turn out either way – and we can’t seem to predict.

I think this means that there just isn’t much point in judging it one way or other – there is no point in celebrating “good luck” or agonizing over “bad luck” – we are probably wrong and just don’t know it yet. Best to follow my mother’s advice and realize that is just the way things are … “such is life.”