Wildfire(s) in California

A major wildfire up near Redding in Northern Calif has destroyed 500 homes and tragically there have been two firefighter deaths. Fire is about 50,000 acres large last I heard (yesterday). It is moving so fast that most efforts have been directed towards evacuations. Temps in inland California are in the 100+ range. Hot dry weather. The fire moved through an area including Whiskeytown lake where it hit a marina with something like 40 boats lost. Not really important compared to lives and homes.

Edit: This is known as the Carr Fire. Just read now there are 5 lives lost -- add a grandmother and her two grandchildren. Very sad news. Last year the wildfires fires around Santa Rosa & wine country claimed 45 lives and almost 9,000 structures. Without saying this is just awful.

Over the past month or so we have had two wildfire incidents within 4 to 5 miles of my place. Where we are is a textbook definition of urban/wildland interface. I was happy to see the heavy response to contain these incidents, which in addition to man power included bombers and helicopters. Looks like it is going to be a bad fire season.

Scary stuff indeed. Just heard that a friend of my brother's was forced to evacuate her home in Redding and will be living with family outside the area while she waits to hear if she still has a home/personal belongings etc. after just having moved back to CA from CT a year ago.

FWIW prayers for any and all exposed to these fires, 1st respondents and residents alike.

It is pretty bad. Over 800 homes destroyed. Mandatory evacuation applies to something like 38,000 people. Now over 100,000 acres. Last I read firefighters are starting to make some headway with 20% containment.

There are currently about 17 wildfires happening in California. 12,000 firefighters are deployed.

Crazy.

Have a friend in the wildland interface outside Chico and he has done as much as he can to make his home defensible. But when these fires get so large they generate their own weather, it is about impossible to defend anything. August will be a long month in California this summer. Great paychecks for the firefighters, but very hard earned.

I am a retired forester. The State of California needs to rethink their regs for home contruction materials, defensible space, fuels reduction, thinning and logging. They are paying the price for fire suppression, and the Protectionist Doctrine. There are a lot more logging trucks now on NFs like the Plumas, Lassen, and Tahoe.

Contrary to public opinion, fire resilience can be created. We are not at the mercy of Mother Nature and global warming. But there needs to be a complete change in the approach of how to deal with wild fires. The mega fires will continue until we get caught up with the management.

Ppine, as the son of a forestry professor, all I can say is AMEN!

Thanks for chiming in Bill.
There is so much misinformation, it is very frustrating to witness.
People need to stop trying to stop timber sales and support the logging industry.
It is not reasonable to keep sending firefighters into dangerous explosive fires in mismanaged timber stands.

There is a lot we can do in our own yards, our neighborhoods and municipalities.
Support responsible and sustainable logging.
Our problems now clearly have resulted from too many trees per acre and 125 years of fire suppression.

"too many trees per acre and 125 years of fire suppression."

Similar discussions been happening for the last 45 years. We just can't seem to get a sustainable action plan that is based on the science.

The miss-management is the same on the east coast. The under story of the forests in CT are so dense at this point we're lucky we don't get the dry air and wind that CA does for protracted periods of time because we'd have an absolute firestorm if this place lit up.

I've read that one of the biggest contributors to the problem is tree-hugging activists that prevent even cleanup of dead and down trees and underbrush. They feel that ANY activity is wrong, and they file lawsuits to stop or prevent any reasonable action from taking place.

Roger

Where I live we have controlled burns every so often to keep the forest from going up in flames after years of neglect.

KM, they use controlled burns when they can here, too, but they are risky owing to unpredictable winds and the incredible buildup of heavy fire and "ladder" fuels. Even at that, they are treating perhaps one-half of 1 percent of what desperately needs treating. There is just so much biomass that has built up over the past century plus. Toss a couple of endangered species into this matrix and you have a recipe for catastrophe. I live on the edge of the Lincoln National Forest, home of the fire that gave our nation Smokey the Bear.

On federal lands there is a requirement for compliance with NEPA the National Environmental Policy Act. It oftens means a study and other field examinations for things like archaeology, threatened and endangered plants and animals and biological assesssments for species of special concern like Grizz or wolverines. Anyone can challenge a timber sale for the cost of a stamp and it may go to court.

Prescribed fire is part of the solution but thinning and logging are required along with it. The best rehabilitation of overstocked forests occurs with selective logging first and then prescribed fire which stays on the ground and does not crown out.

This!

Hi Bill
When I was a kid I lived in Maryland and used to go to the National Zoo all the time to visit the real Smokey.
He was a rescued from the Lincoln NF in N Mexico right about the time that I was born in 1950.
I used to talk sit and talk with him all the time.
He is part of the reason I became a forester.

Good for you, Ppine. I have only seen pictures and newsreels of Smokey. Next time I am in Capitan, I will stop and pay my respects at his grave. The northernmost of the three ranger districts in the Lincoln is named after Smokey, the other two being the Sacramento and the Guadalupe.

In face of the awful megafires currently burning in California and southern Oregon, I spend a lot of time on forums talking with people about forestry.
I see the smoke here in Nevada just over the hill.
There is a lot of discussion about how drought and weather conditions have caused the fires. Many people are long winded about a warming climate.
These are contributing factors alright, but the main problem is neglect. The USFS has promoted 100% fire suppression since 1910 after the Big Blowup in MT and ID.
Too many stems per acre. Too much brush and understory. Too much dead organic material.

Now is the right time to try to get people to understand that were are reaping what we have sown. Thoughts and prayers do not cut it.
Firefighters are doing all they can, but it is not reasonable to keep sending them into these giant infernos. Most of the current fires cannot really be fought on the ground except at night when the fires lay down. It is a bunch of air shows which is why they cost so much to fight.
Billions of dollars are spent on suppression. Budgets for fuel reduction and precommercial thinning are a few million.
It is like the old oil filter. "You can pay me now or you can pay me later."
Support responsible logging.

Another firefighter lost his life in N. Cal (Mendocino Complex Fire). He was based out of Utah.

Even though I am a couple of hundred of miles away from these fires there has been a lot of smoke in the air. It has started to cleare up around my place over the past couple of days. Last week I drove into the central valley south of Stockton and was shocked at how much smoke was in the atmosphere.

Seems a lot of the problem is the left and right can't seem to meet in the middle with responsible forest management. Seems to be the problem with much of our government.

Two of the largest obstacles to forest management and timber sales are lawsuits and compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act NEPA.