Forest management is missing piece of California’s wildfire puzzle

Siskiyou Daily News (Yreka, CA)

Aug. 15--WEED -- The catastrophic wildfires that are being seen more and more in California can largely be blamed on the suppression of both fire and logging, according to Danielle Lindler, certified forester and co-owner of Jefferson Resource Company, Inc. -- an environmental resource firm based in Siskiyou County.

A good portion of JRC's work involves "proper forest management," or caring for forests to ensure they are as healthy as possible through thinning, harvesting, reforestation and other methods. The company was founded by McCloud resident Ron Berryman in 1992 under the name Berryman & Associates. Lindler and her husband took over in 2002. Berryman now manages his 182 acre Berryman Family Forest in Weed, with the goal of harvesting the property in an environmentally sound manner which promotes forest health and converts non-productive areas to beneficial uses.

Fire suppression started in an effort to protect people, as populations moved to more rural, forested areas. Berryman pointed to the Great Fire of 1910 as the impetus for fire suppression in the United States. The fire burned 3 million acres across Montana and Idaho. The U.S. Forest Service notes on its website, "The fire fundamentally shaped Forest Service practices. The Great Fire of 1910 affected forest fire fighting policy of the nation and influenced forest management to this very day."

Suppressing fire, though, can contribute to overgrowth and longer times between fires. Overgrowth means more fuel for a fire when it does burn, and longer times between fires creates higher fire intensity when a blaze is ignited, Lindler said.

Mitigation of fuels is essential to curbing instances of catastrophic wildfire. Extreme blazes happen, in part, when fuels are out of balance, Lindler explained. The "wildfire triangle" illustrates the three primary factors that contribute to a fire: topography, weather and fuels. While we can't control the weather or topography, Lindler said, we can manage the fuels. Logging is one way to do that. "It does not need to be industrial logging to make a difference," she asserted.

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A common refrain in certain circles is that by logging, people have interfered with the natural landscape and that interference has contributed to wildfires. Asked what she would say to people who hold that belief, Lindler pointed to the Ferguson Fire, which has burned nearly 100,000 acres in Yosemite National Park this year. "We haven't logged on Yosemite in over 50 years," she said, "but it's burning." She added, "Even in areas where we haven't suppressed fire or logged, forests are burning."

Lindler and Berryman provided a tour of a portion of the Berryman Family Forest, to demonstrate what a properly managed forest looks like. Berryman keeps the trees thinned and works to reduce the "vertical and horizontal continuity of fuels." This involves creating horizontal breaks so that tree branches don't interlock. Interlocking branches makes it far easier for fire to spread. Brush is also cut and cleared. A four foot high patch of manzanita can create 12 foot high flames if it burns, Lindler said.

While there are many rules in place in California regarding how people should protect their homes from fire, those rules are often not enforced, Berryman said. Insurance companies typically serve as the best enforcement, he noted, when they refuse to insure a home because the surrounding land is not fire safe.

Unfortunately, many people don't worry about fire safety and creating defensible space around their homes until it is too late. Berryman, who served as the head of the McCloud Fire Safe Council, said that the council organized a meeting in the past to help local citizens learn everything they needed to know about protecting their homes from fire. But no one came.

"People didn't show up for the meeting, but they showed up when fire was lapping at their doorstep," Berryman said. This also means that resources which should go toward fighting wildland fires must be diverted. Berryman added, "Too many CAL FIRE resources go to protecting homes that homeowners themselves haven't protected."

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