We finally got an opportunity to return to our cabin in the Sierras. It is located on the peninsula of Lake Almanor, right in the center of the huge Dixie fire in Northern California. The fire is approaching a million acres and is now 75% contained, but is finally out along the major roads in that area. The air quality impact from smoke at our cabin has decreased to a tolerable “moderate” air quality index instead of more than double the beginning of the “hazardous” range. The hazardous range is 300 and above. According to a neighbor, it was above 800 for a couple of weeks at our cabin. We decided to go check it out because the power was back on, the air was tolerable, and they were allowing people back into the evacuated zones. When we got there it was a little different than that because they had once again turned off the power, and on Monday the air was awful (unhealthy) once again. Our cabin is located in the center of a doughnut hole surrounded by vast burned up forests, none of that is visible at our cabin. You wouldn’t know there had been a fire except for the 1/2 inch or so of ash covering everything and many 2 inch chunks of burned bark scattered around the yard. The road to Chester went through miles of burned forest, with vast areas of black ground and black poles that used to be green trees.

One of the truly amazing things that we found (besides all of the burned trees) was scale of the “emergency” logging under way. I have lived in logging country most of my life, but have never seen anything approaching the scale of these activities. Everywhere you look there are hug piles of logged trees, ready to be picked up and taken to the mills. We passed dozens of logging operations, with many tractors, yarders, trucks, loggers, etc. They are clearcutting everything back a few hundred feet from the roads, and apparently vast areas of burnt forest beyond the view from the roads, but judging from the new logging roads and number of log trucks on the roads, they are really busy everywhere. It is an amazing sight. It is my understanding that the rush to cut everything down as soon as possible is that while the trees are only burned less than 1/2 inch deep into the bark, they are now dead and will dry out quickly- becoming useless for making lumber. They need to be milled quickly if they are to be “salvaged” – hence the feeling of emergency in these operations.

It happened that a really interesting program was on NPR while we were driving up to the cabin. (Ref: North State Public Radio out of Chico, September 10, Blue Dot #229, After the Fire featuring Chad Hanson PhD, Ecologist working for the John Muir Project). Dr. Hanson was explaining that there is a better way to approach fire safety while creating sustainable ecosystems than the current approach being implemented by the government (both California and the Feds).

His first point is that large, and very large, fires are a natural part of the ecosystems in California. The forests have not only regularly burned for a few million years, but the ecosystems have evolved to not only tolerate the fires, but to depend upon the fires for their existence. Big fires are not a disaster, they are the very things that have made California the beautiful and diverse environment that it is. Hundreds of acres of black poles sticking out of the ground might be rather unappealing immediately after a fire, they are the beginnings of new, healthy ecosystems. Basically, these fires should be considered to be good news because they are ensuring the future health of the forests, not a disaster. While there is a temporary problem with the “esthetics” of a burned area, we should not base our forest management practices upon what looks nice – we should base it upon science and sustainable practices for the entire ecosystem (not just ongoing logging practices).

Dr. Hanson described what happens to the ecosystem following a fire in very compelling, and hopeful, terms. First come the beetles, then come the woodpeckers to eat the beetles, then come other birds to live in the holes made by the woodpeckers, then the raptors (hawks and eagles) eating the birds and squirrels, etc. Then the plants that depend upon fire for procreation and health reseed, etc. Basically, the forest quickly starts to regrow, revitalize and become healthy. It is the process that has happened for thousands and thousands of years, and will happen again if we let it be. However, if we cut down the dead trees clear-cut and plant new trees, then there are no beetles, no birds, no squirrels, no regeneration of vegetation, etc. He considers what we are currently doing to be a very expensive subsidized logging practice. The loggers get paid to “clear” the land, get permits to plant trees where they couldn’t before, are allowed to clear cut where that practices has been outlawed – all in the name of “salvaging” dead trees (as if they had no value other than wood for lumber). The practice destroys the forest ecology in the name of more logging.

Dr. Hanson suggests letting the fires burn, letting the burned forests rejuvenate according to “nature’s way”, and use the saved money to make existing human things fire safe and to protect those things when necessary. He also suggests avoiding building more houses in dangerous, fire prone areas. He offered a lot of interesting, logical, but new to me ways to easily and affordably reduce fire risks to homes and structures.

I found it quite interesting to have just listened to his presentation and then be driving through those areas an hour or so later. What struck me most was the LACK of devastation in the burned out areas. It was not even close to being completely burned – the fire appeared to jump around. Some places burned the ground clear and burned all the limbs off of the trees. In other places it just burned the ground cover and brush, other areas were untouched. Obviously there is a lot remaining that can quickly colonize the burned areas. In the burned areas, it was clear that the ground had been greatly fertilized by the thick layer of ash. When looking through my new “eco-friendly” eyes I saw that the burned areas looked “right” and the logged areas to be the actual areas of devastation. Perhaps clearing next to the roads to maintain access during fires makes sense. Perhaps it makes some sense to remove the dead trees to minimize road hazards due to falling trees and the like. Other than that, it was clear that it was really just a glut of subsidized logging.

I ordered Dr. Hanson’s book, Smoke Screen, to see what else he has to say about improved forest management practices and fire “proofing” homes in fire hazardous areas (since I live in a fire dangerous location and have a summer cabin in another). I don’t know where I will land with these thoughts after reading his book and doing further research, but my instinct is that he is correct – we are continuing to destroy our forests in the name of “smokey the bear” and subsidized logging.