SF Chronicle: RAGING TAHOE FIRE'S ROOTS: 150 YEARS OF FOREST ABUSE

[Matsubara]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/26/MNGMDQLP6E1.DTL

RAGING TAHOE FIRE'S ROOTS: 150 YEARS OF FOREST ABUSE
HISTORY OF MISMANAGEMENT: From Gold Rush logging to modern development
Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The raging fire that is denuding hillsides and darkening the clear blue waters of Lake Tahoe is the final product of 150 years of mismanagement of the Sierra Nevada ecosystem, fire management experts said Monday.
From Gold Rush clear-cutters to modern home-builders, people have brought changes to the Tahoe basin that have fueled the intensity of the 2,500-acre Angora fire near the town of South Lake Tahoe. By Monday night, 178 homes had fallen casualty to the 2-day-old blaze, which was only 40 percent contained.
Ecologists and local residents said they saw such a disaster coming.
"It's the fire we've been anticipating for 20 years," said Patsy Miller, who owns a residence at Fallen Leaf Lake, about a mile from where the flames had spread by late Monday.
"People have interjected their homes into a system that has a natural tendency to burn very frequently, and where we have suppressed the frequency of those fires for so long, there's an ungodly amount of fuel there," Forest Service regional ecologist Hugh Safford said.
The immediate cause of the Angora fire was under investigation Monday. But the fire's beginnings can be traced all the way back to the Gold Rush and the Comstock-era mining boom.
"They clear-cut about two-thirds of the basin," said Shane Romsos, science and evaluation program manager for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Mixed-growth forests of fire-tolerant species like the self-pruning Jeffrey pine were replaced by uniform stands of dense white fir and undergrowth, which grew rapidly in the unusually wet years of the early 20th century.
Then came the vacation homes and ski areas. As development spread, land managers focused on fire suppression, allowing the fuel load to build every year.

[uppityperson]

1. It is odd, for those of us who grew up during Smokey the Bear yrs

For yrs forest mis-management has been done. I live in a mostly mono-treed 50 yr old clearcut and can see the posibility of fire here also.

[tired_old_fireman]

2. People should have paid closer attention to the give a hoot don't pollute owl

and not worried so much about Smokey the Bear.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but if your area is ripe for fire, please make sure you have brush cleared from around your house and keep some well coiled hoses at the ready. Those things make a huge difference.

[Matsubara]

3. Yes, it's appalling when I see people throw lit cigarettes out their car window IN A FOREST.

Mind-blowing. They have ashtrays in cars, nowadays!

:mad:

[tired_old_fireman]

4. I couldn't agree more.

People who ash out of their car or throw lit cigarettes out of their car should be in prison. I'm not even joking. It should be attempted arson (or something to that effect.)

I hate people who don't use their ashtray because they don't want to admit to themselves they smoke. Or they want to smoke but don't want the inconvenience of cleaning an ashtray.

I'm glad I don't carry or own a gun because I'd be tempted to shoot somebody's car every time I saw them ash out their window.

[uppityperson]

5. It is"ish", No brush, hoses, BIG water tank, big clearing.

Move the cars, get hoses, watch carefully, stay wet, middle of clearing, hope it doesn't come from downhill since that is the way the road exits. Had a friend who worked NFS in SE AK, used to dress up as Woodsy Owl until the spotted owl thing took off and they decided it was not safe to parade around as Woodsy Owl anymore.

[fed-up]

6. Sold my home in another wildfire area last Nov-raging 800 acre fire last month was 1/2 M away....nt

[sandnsea]

7. Clear cuts and uniform reforestation

I have it all over where I live. It doesn't take a genius to figure out it'll burn like matchsticks. And they keep doing it and lying while they do it. Drives me right out of my mind.

Why are the people who want to hunt in forests the same people who keep chopping the forests down. :crazy:

[SoCalDem]

8. Not just here.. When we were in Tahiti, I saw magnificent mahogany trees

on the hillsides as we went to our hotel...and I asked the driver if they were being protected.. "Yes ma'am, he said"...and then we passed logging trucks with mahogany on them :cry:

[sandnsea]

9. That bothers me too

They're selling bamboo and other kinds of woods as eco-friendly and a natural alternative to chemical-based flooring. But how do we know what is really going on in other countries and what they're cutting down. There's not enough corn because we're using it for fuel. Our oceans are dangerously over-fished. Who knows what is happening with the world's trees. I really feel like we're on the titanic and watching celebrity tv as we sink.

[pinto]

10. This is a disaster for the Tahoe region. That said, there was a satellite survey

done by LANDSAT, iirc, that compared wildfire occurrence in similar areas of the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest. Seems the Mexican areas that were 'allowed' cyclical fire occurrences were more self limiting, in that they reduced the large swaths of fire fuel that the American areas had 'allowed' to build up by suppression of any and all wildfires.

The Mexican burn areas were a patchwork compared to some of the burn areas in the American Southwest.

This is in no means meant to minimize this blaze disaster for my fellow Californians in the region - the Tahoe fire is a disaster - just an observation.

Fire (outside of arson) is a regular, natural occurrence in the West and Southwest and is as much a part of the ecosystem as are the Sierra snow pack/snow melt, the great East-West rivers from the Sierra and the cyclical rain and dry seasons which are the biological clock here.

I understand there is plenty of discussion in the CA Dept. of Forestry and federal agencies about rethinking our approaches to wildfire suppression and response. Beyond the immediate losses incurred in this fire, it may bring these discussions back to the forefront to help remake a reasonable approach to what we can expect of fire management authorities, especially in the Sierra.

Good luck to all.