I was going to do a post on the weather and lack of rain this winter, but right now there is some hint that that's about to change this week (I'll let you know!). Still, the dry weather had us out looking at our significantly overgrown forest and wondering what good stewardship and fire prevention would have us do.The forests of California tend to be tinder boxes just waiting for a match. We don't get any rain in the summer, and a dry winter like this just increases the potential for a wildfire. The local newspaper reported that even if in the next three months we were to get significant rainfall, it is unlikely we can make up for the deficits of November and December (and half of January).
When we look at the trees on our southern boundary we see a major fuel build up. In fact, when I take a closer look, it looks like the fallen timbers have been stacked like kindling (definitely embiggen this photo). This is a terrible scenario for fire season. In a perfect world, there would be prescribed or natural lightening strike burns so that catastrophic wildfires could be prevented. But in rural/residential neighborhoods like ours, there's no perfect world, and no prescribed burn. So, we've called upon the tree-cutting service to come out on Monday to thin out the smaller trees and remove all that dry underbrush.
Fire suppression may not be the most thoughtful way to preserve our forests. In fact, fire suppression is why our forests look the way they do, but good stewardship does require us to do our share to find a balance. Our poor earth, I wish there were a better way. We humans do make a mess of things.
Wowsers,Robin,IT DOES look like stacked kindling! I think you are wise to be proactive.
ReplyDeletelots to keep your eye on, it seems. hope the rain/snow finds you very soon. we will try to spin some your way. ;) we may accumulate 14 inches by wednesday! have 3 inches right now. glad you are getting the preventitive work done. what kind of snow season do you guys normally have? i remember some beautiful shots you took last year.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Robin, and we do indeed make a mess of our world, don't we?? We're enjoying quite a bit of snow -- for Seattle, today and for the remainder of the week! Hope you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
I am so glad you are getting that dead wood cleared out. An expensive but necessary solution.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you get that needed rain.
"...good stewardship does require us to do our share to find a balance..."
ReplyDeleteSeeing those old photos from Montana certainly brings the message home about the need to call in the tree-cutting service for your forest on Monday.
It's almost the New Year of the Trees again.
Looking forward seeing photos of your lovely forest restored to safety for its sake and that of nearby human beings and other creatures.
The first snow of the season began falling late yesterday morning. There has been new snow overnight. I can see no footsteps in the snow when I look outside in these predawn hours.
That's a sobering post. I sort of think of your land as a paradise, but it seems that the weather's taken some wild swings in the short time you've been there. I do hope you get rain, and enough of it, but spaced out nicely so you're not looking at drear months. Maybe a good snow cover now, then rain in the spring? I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
ReplyDeleteDid I read it here, or perhaps in a book... that old growth trees were resistant to forest fires? Forest fires would clear out the undergrowth without harming the older trees. There's so little old growth forest left in the east, and most of it is on extremely steep hillsides that would-be foresters couldn't reach. If it ever gets dry here, we are wicked screwed.
It does look like a disaster waiting to happen. Hope it does not and that the rains come soon for you!
ReplyDeleteThere's never an easy answer when it comes to our relationship with nature. I do hope you get more rain this winter. We had severe drought in our county two years ago and we lived in great fear of forest fires.
ReplyDeleteWas just checking on your weather (and ours). You have heavy rains coming your way later this week, and snow is stacked on my porch railing.
ReplyDeleteThe natural longleaf pine forests in the Southeast apparently looked much like the 1909 picture, with little in the way of undergrowth. It was fire that maintained those forests, too. Our own little plot is a good example of the worst we do. We have a pine thicket for which the word "thicket" might have been coined. It is actually hard to walk through because of the dense growth of small pines, many of which have died. There is also a huge number of small trees on the ground along with a thick mat of needles. A long dry period and a spark could make a disaster. I'm slowly thinning and cleaning. Unfortunately we have very few longleafs around here; mainly it's loblolly and a couple of short-leafed varieties.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if any of your neighbors are doing the same forest work as you. You might ask if you are having a conversation with them. It would behoove everyone in your neck of the woods (pun intended) to do likewise.
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