It's not for lack of trying on FS part:
August Complex cleanup is underway.
mendovoice.com
Really?
I would argue that it isn't the fault of seasonal firefighters fault, but I would absolutely argue that this is to a massive degree a FS issue and very much to blame. When the Chief of the Forest Service (now gone) is offered the keys to the gates earlier this year by Congress and flatly says we don't need anything...... That was about the dumbest thing I have every heard.
Then to have every contract for private help put on hold this year because someone messed up...... This put every private contract on hold this year for several months. No private assistance from state agencies, no food services or fuel delivery by private contractors. No private air attack..........
Federal firefighters here in Ca aren't fighting fire at night when it is actually the safest and best time to make progress on a fire. This is a federal policy issue and is very much a Forest Service issue.
I will agree that the FS's hands have been restrained by the Equal Opportunity to Justice Act and every time they try and put out a contract for logging it gets sued. I am talking about some very simple things:
The following are some statics from the Forest Service's own reports from some local California Fires:
2007 Moonlight Fire. From the Plumas National Forest environmental assessment 88,000 acres of federal ground burnt with 4100 acres proposed for reforestation (4.6%).
2007 and 2008 Westside Fire Complex. From the Shasta Trinity National Forest Record of Decision. 200,000 federal acres burnt with 17,654 acres proposed for reforestation (8.8%).
2012 Bagley Fire. From the Shasta Trinity National Forest BAER report. 32,000 acres of federal land burnt, 2500 acres proposed for reforestation in the report, but no follow up work ever done past the Baer report. No reforestation. (0%)
2013 Rim Fire. From the Stanislaus National Forest Record of Decision. 154,530 federal acres burnt with 21,279 acres planned for reforestation (13.8%).
2014 Eiler and Bald Fires on the Lassen National Forest. From the Hat Creek Fire Restoration Project report 70,994 federal acres burnt, 7,146 acres were replanted after the fire, but no vegetation control was implemented and the plantations failed. Total acres planned for reforestation equals 10%.
2014 King Fire. From the El Dorado National Forest Record of Decision. 63,536 acres of federal land burnt with 10,609 acres reforested (16.7%).
2018 Carr, Delta and Hirz fires on the Shasta Trinity National Forest, BLM and National Park Service. According to the Carr Fire BAER report 132,000 acres of federal land including USFS, BLM and NPS ground was lost in the fire. Total acres burned for the Delta and Hirz fires was 109,461 acres. The amount of reforestation post fire??? Zero.
In 2020, the Mendocino and Shasta Trinity National Forests were hit with the August Complex megafires that were over 1,000,000 acres burned. It is early in the process but according to the scoping documents from the Shasta Trinity National Forest, 140,000 acres of the Shasta Trinity National Forest was lost and early proposals are designating 2700 acres for reforestation (2%). The Mendocino National Forest lost 612,634 acres and so far have proposed 1617 acres for reforestation (0.6%).
For just these fires a total of 1,603,155 acres of federal ground was lost with just 65,105 acres either reforested or planned for reforestation or 4% of the total ground burnt for a net loss of 1,538,050 of forest land not designated to be reforested.
The one which really gets me is the area where the Dixie Fire is currently burning has burn 2 times in the last 20 years (the Chipps and Storie Fires). The Storie Fire, the Feds were awarded over $80 million in a lawsuit from how the fire started. You know how many trees were planted with that $80 million??? 200. These fires were 40,000 to 50,000 acre fires. No salvaging was done and now these areas are burning again. These were some beautiful Ponderosa Pine stands.
So, to say that this isn't the FS fault is bull. The Forest Service is very much at fault here, but so it the state, so are the loggers and foresters who logged the original old growth forests, so is every tax payer who hasn't voiced a that science and not politics should govern our forest management when we import 95% of our woods needs in this state from Or, Wash, and BC.
We as a society have given into the idea that the greener the forest, the more healthy it is. Historically, we would have had a lower densities in these stands 40 to 75 trees per acre. Especially on the east side. These stands had fire on them every 5 to 7 years. Now, we have more than 200 trees per acre and in a lot of places 2 times than even.
We can do better and if we don't, we are going to see type conversion on a massive level in this state.
