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#12 Forest Fire observation

Will Hatcher: … as soon as we get to the highway, we went through forest and replacement fires that occurred over about the last 25 years. There are 2 switchback fires. This right here in front of you off the road and all behind you here, you can see the little plantations, is the Cherry Creek Fire, which occurred back in either the late ‘70s or 1980. Upon Saddle Mountain, that is ? Fire, about a 4000-acre fire. That was in ’87, and then over here to the north, if you look clear in the back, you’ll see all that open hillside there; that is the Lone Pine Fire of 1992, and that consumed about 30,000 acres, and it still extends clear over to here too. It ran for about 15 miles long and about 6 or 7 miles wide. It just ripped for probably about 5 or 6 days.

Man: Has that been replanted?

Will: That’s been all replanted.

Man: With what?

Will: With primarily ponderosa pine and some sugar pine, but it’s been planted to densities that it’s going to burn up again until they thin it.

Woman: They went in and logged it before they replanted it too.

Will: The brush has come back so dense now that it’s, it’s at risk again to burn again already.

Gerta Hyde: How do you feel about the timber that they didn’t take?

Will: How do I feel about what they didn’t take?

Gerta Hyde: Yeah, I mean isn’t that a big waste?

Will: No, cuz there are other benefits that a dead tree has, particularly to some wildlife species. All the dead trees don’t necessarily have to go to a mill and be turned into logs.

Gerta Hyde: It seems like … are so many.

Will: Yeah, there are a lot, but they were left to meet other resource concerns.

Deb Crisp: And sometimes, they don’t take them for safety reason; they are dangerous trees.

Will: No. That’s all I wanted to point out here. That is what we want to avoid, and our forest is set up to have that kept repeating year after year, those types of fires.

Commissioner West: Well, and then you see… Is that only looking at the Skunk part, the new part?

Will: Yeah, that is the Skunk Fire right there.

West: Yeah, that is the Skunk Fire right there, the new stuff.

Will: That’s right, I forgot about that one.

Man: Where it’s darker underneath the green.

Man: Yeah, where it’s real dark.

West: Just above the dark green.

Will: In fact, they’re harvesting that right now. It should be almost done, the salvage on that.

Crisp: …got that set up with the big guy upstairs for no lightening strikes until you can…

Will: No, I can’t say that.

back in van, to hill overlooking the Sprague