Letter: USFS, CTC negligent landowners
To the community,
“The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan is about the wildfire of 1910 that burned an area the size of Connecticut. And it is about the birth of the Forest Service and conservation in the U.S. The fire began in Idaho and spread to Montana and Washington. It is about good guys and bad guys. For examples: the role of the 25th Infantry, the Buffalo Soldiers, black men who saved the town of Avery, Idaho. And the book tells about the attempts of the timber and railroad barons to kill the Forest Service and the conservation movement.
Bill Crawford
“The Big Burn” compels me to focus on the role of the Forest Service and the California Tahoe Conservancy in the city of South Lake Tahoe. Both agencies own lots in the city; lots that are not maintained to help prevent fire. High grass and pine trees are a good mix in a dry season. We have had two dry years back to back.
It’s ironic that the Forest Service was created in 1905 with a top priority of prevention of wildfire, especially in the West. When I look at Forest Service lots in the city, that priority is on the back burner. The same can be said about the CTC. Pine trees aren’t properly limbed and high grass isn’t cut. If a crown fire with high wind happens, it’s disaster for the city. Most of us in the city live in a subdivided pine forest.
I realize that some fires can’t be prevented, but citizens and public agencies should do their best to help prevent wildfires. The Forest Service and the CTC have failed to do their job. So far the city has been lucky. How long will good luck hold?
Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe
PS: Doctors say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That should be the rule for wildfire prevention.
More pompous armchair talk. Go ahead and identify the specific parcels in question and bring them to the attention of the respective agencies. They work all summer long to clear lots and provide fuelwood to locals. Funding is ever harder to come by, but I have seen a lot of cleared lots. If only they had the staff time and proper weather conditions to clear all the burn piles that are out there right now. . .
Grasses and vegetation are a natural park of the forest landscape. The agencies goal is to maintain these urban parcels in a natural/healthy state, which doesn’t mean a “park” like state with mowed grass. Healthy also means that trees are thinned to prevent wildfires. And, in my opinion, that’s what they have been doing to the best of their ability given now limited resources.
We do live in a forest after all, and we must show the forest and it’s natural ecological processes some respect, and that means trying to reduce the impacts of the past and also realizing that there are both benefits and risks associated with living in this forest environment.
The forest service and its original mission was more based on harvesting timber and as a result fighting wildfires to keep their precious commodity from burning, thus loosing the money for selling the timber. Since the early 1900’s the mission of the USDA Forest Service has changed and so have the sentiments of the owners of this land, The people of the United States. These are public lands managed by the USDAFS. wildfires were suppressed for so long that the timber became overgrown and thick stands filled in and that is why there are so many big fires now. Not to mention that more people build McMansions in the middle of these forests. I have a CTC lot behind my house and its one of my favorite places because its blocked so no one can park their cars on it and the low growing native plants thrive. For about a month there is lupine and mules ear blooming. there is wild rose and a few big Jeffry Pines and its just a nice little piece of open space in the middle of the neighborhood. The only thing Id like to change is to get the people that think its their dogs toilet to pick up their dogs crap. Now that would be a nice thing…
Seems the private lots in the city are the worst at times for not thinning lots(that was done pre us by natural fire) to prevent weak trees that eventually will succumb to something.
Volunteers are needed to supplement overextended paid personnel to bring lots within city limits and areas outside city limits into compliance with best forest management practices.
Anyone who isn’t willing to volunteer for this in some capacity — whether labor or support — ought not to beef, especially if they’ve opposed tax hikes.
The California Tahoe Conservancy and USFS Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) both have robust programs which work hard to manage the health of the forests within their respective ownership. Both agencies collaborate with local fire districts in North and South Lake Tahoe to implement adaptive management methods such as the removal of dead and dying trees, thinning of overstocked forest stands, and re-introduction of fire into the ecosystem through prescribed burning. Choice of treatment methods must balance efficiency and cost-effectiveness with minimizing environmental impacts. For more information about the Conservancy’s Forest Habitat Enhancement Program and a list of frequently asked questions please visit our website at http://tahoe.ca.gov/forest-habitat-enhancement.aspx.
HEY Bill!!! you pompous armchair !! So far it is one against Six1