Chaparral Wisdom
To celebrate the magic and beauty of Nature & the chaparral
Our Day in Court – Suing Cal Fire to Protect Nature in California
– Five Reasons Why Cal Fire’s Approach to Wildfire Prevention is Wrong –
November 9, 2023 is the date (updated – the schedule was moved forward two months).
The future of wild Nature in California depends on how the courts ultimately rule.
After more than three years of waiting, we finally have our hearing with a judge to stop Cal Fire from clearing hundreds of thousands of acres of native habitat per year – from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, along the chaparral covered hillsides of California’s beautiful coastline, throughout the Sierra Nevada foothills, to the precious Bishop pine groves at Point Reyes.
The basic Cal Fire assumption? We can control wild Nature by turning it into a managed garden, replacing rich chaparral habitats with isolated clusters of shrubs surrounded by flammable, invasive weeds and creating artificial, park-like forests with chain saws, grinding machines, and herbicides.
Here are the five reasons
we are taking Cal Fire to court:
1. The Cal Fire Vegetation Treatment Plan (VTP) will Increase Fire Risk.
2. Cal Fire Admits They are Ignoring the Real Threat.
3. Cal Fire Admits that Native Shrublands are Threatened by too much Fire, but they’re Going to Burn/Grind/Herbicide them Anyway.
4. The Cal Fire VTP Ignores Environmental Impacts by Falsely Claiming the Habitat Fragments they will Leave Behind Compensate for what they Destroy.
5. The Cal Fire VTP Violates Public Law Because its Habitat Clearance Projects will cause Type Conversion of Native Shrublands.
We explain each of these five reasons here.
Please support our efforts by:
1. Donate to support our fight to protect Nature in California.
2. Forwarding this journal entry to anyone you think would like to be informed.
3. Signing our petition.
4. Go out into the chaparral and enjoy its beauty. Then share the experience with a friend. Become a voice for the plants and animals who thrive there.
Thanks to our co-plaintiff, Endangered Habitats League, for their ongoing support and encouragement.
I live in Cuddy Valley near Mt. Pinos. Our entire area is slated to be logged and cleared under 4 different plans. All the old-growth heritage Jeffrey pine and white fir forests will be cut down, after centuries of growth and protection. As well as the manzanitas and huckleberry and other mature and diverse chapparal on the mountain.
It is so obvious, the difference between the open and shady protected mature forest, as opposed to the dense unmanaged invasive dry weeds and brush, with small sticky trees too close together with all dead branches underneath, of the areas logged in previous decades, for which there has been no management, because there is no funding. Some areas the trees never grow back, and large open areas of gravel ruts high up on the mountain are logging’s legacy there.
But the mature open forests with large trees and mature native chapparal manage themselves and are much more resistant to fire. in 30 years, the only fires we have seen have started in the weeds and grass, almost always near the highway or roads, usually by cars or trucks that overheat. We have a dozen of those a year. But the brush and grasses by the freeway aren’t kept down, because they grow back every year, as they do in the firebreaks and cleared areas. The only fires that started in the big woods since I moved there in 1999 were started by forest service personnel for controlled burns that got out of hand.
The large mature pines can handle fire, and they are fire-resistant, having already survived fires. But they will almost all be simply cut down now if plans go forward. These forests will never return, because the climate has changed and there just isn’t enough water, and the trees left by themselves most often die as the ground all around them dries out. The big woods used to be more carefully tended, but there is no money for that anymore in this economy.
These woods slated to be cut are the only big high-altitude pine woods like this for hundreds of miles, the only ones between the sierras and the San Bernardino mountains, and beloved by thousands of people who come from all over Southern California to camp and hike in the awe-inspiring trees and watch the stars and the rare birds that live only here.
This forest is not sick. It’s not dying. It’s not choked with dead trees excepting areas where previous logging has left it choked with weeds and too dense. Management and thinning of some of the ugly and dense more recently logged and replanted areas is absolutely needed, but there is no money for that, and no personnel because of years of budget cuts, the local rangers have told me.
There is however lots of money to cut down and destroy the climax open forest of giant heritage pines, and the wildflower meadows and huckleberry and lupine and wild Iris and snow plants that grow in their shade-Because the mature large Jeffries are so valuable as wood pulp. The bigger they are, the more valuable. They will become toilet paper in China or Japan and we will buy them back at a loss.
And no one will ever see this cool and majestic forest again. We will be literally surrounded by stumps and invasive weeds that will easily ignite in our valley and burn our homes. We will experience the erosion of our hillsides, and perhaps landslides that destroy our homes, if fire doesn’t first.
We need hardening of our homes and protection directly around our neighborhoods to survive, not having All of our our pine forests cut down miles away and hundreds and thousands of feet up where no homes are. It makes no sense at all. There is so little of forest like this in Southern California-especially so unspoiled-and the road to Mt.Pinos is paved and smooth and lovely and easy for anyone to drive quickly up to 8300 ft and access high mountain meadows full of wildflowers and sweet-smelling huge Jeffrey pines. This is a treasure to be gently tended and celebrated, with available money used for cleaning up the already logged parts that were not properly managed before, but not to cut the healthy forest down.
Our climax mature forest here needs nothing; it is breathtaking, open, and majestic, with groupings of young white firs growing up in glades amidst the giant Jeffries. There are winding trails, beautiful campgrounds, and clean air and solitude found no where else south of the Sierras. All of this is under imminent threat. Every tree, even the ancient bristlecone pines nearer the summit of Mt. Pinos. All to be wantonly destroyed for nothing but worse fire outcomes.
I have already decided that I will sell my home and my rental and move, because I couldn’t emotionally stand to see this happen. The beautiful trees on public land are the reason I moved there, and I walk in them almost daily. I also don’t want to live surrounded by stumps and dry flammable grasses, Those of us who have eyes can easily see what previous unmanaged logging has done, and it’s very dangerous. Weeds and dry grasses grow up, and slash piles sit for years.
Our shady, cool and moist forest has actually kept us safe from fire starts. The ground is moister there, and supports moister and very diverse undergrowth and healthy fungal colonies.
In the sun, the moister plants dry out and die quickly, with only the more flammable plants able to survive. Rabbitbush and seasonal foxtail are ubiquitous in cleared land all around our valley, and causes lots of us long yearly seasons of allergic discomfort. It grows very quickly in any cleared or mechanically treated area, and is virtually impossible to eradicate, as all of us know who live here and have to clear it from our yards yearly.
Our mature forests keep the rabbit brush and seasonal dry grasses down. They are not easily flammable and deter fire starts, and they hold immense amounts of water long into fire season. Even dead trees hold a ton of water like giant sponges. Most people don’t know this.
What can we do to stop this? The “prevailing wisdom” is exactly backwards, and benefits only loggers, pulp mills and politicians, who are “doing something” about wildfire”, and placating the timber industry lobbyists. “Raking the forest”and similar stupidity, but without proper environmental review or protection-making loopholes intended for diseased and dead forests and using them instead on healthy living forests like ours.
Thank you Wendy for your well stated thoughts. A similar habitat clearance operation in Rancho Cuyamaca State Park caused us to cancel the purchase of a home in the mountains there. We share your sorrow.
CalFire regularly behaves as if wilderness, open spaces and wildlife aren’t a priority. They are to many people Wilderness and wildlife are of paramount importance to many who enjoy and respect nature and all of the flora and fauna. CF ought to carry out their mission with respect for the animals that live in the wild and open spaces where they carry out the work of fire suppression and protecting property.