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At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...036281,00.html
writers on the range At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire By Bill Sullivan Eugene Ore. Monday, December 09, 2002 - This Halloween, I camped in the frozen ash near ground zero of the 499,968-acre Biscuit Fire, the nation's largest wildfire of 2002 and the biggest in Oregon for a century. My wife was not wild about the idea. The Pacific Northwest's largest newspaper, The Oregonian, had just promoted a three-part feature on Biscuit, billing it as the "monster fire." Word was that this inferno had engulfed most of southwest Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest, including every square inch of the remote Kalmiopsis Wilderness. But as the author of half a dozen Oregon outdoor guidebooks, I needed to see the effects of the fire on the ground, and the Forest Service had finally opened roads into the fire zone that week. Janell reluctantly agreed to join me. No life stirred in the moonless night as we drove through black woods down a long dirt road. At the primitive trailhead camp, ash puffed with each footstep as we set up the tent in the glare of the car's headlights. We crawled deep into our sleeping bags and slept. We awoke in a strange new world. The fire had swept through this area, burning nearly everything at ground level. But the tops of the taller trees were green and large areas nearby had not burned at all, especially along creeks and in valleys. For the next three days, as we explored the Kalmiopsis Wilderness from different trailheads, we discovered that this monster fire was not the destroyer we had feared. The blaze had tidied up the woods with the care of a fastidious maintenance crew, pruning the lower branches of old-growth trees and clearing away underbrush of manzanita and poison oak. Our hike along the Illinois River Trail showed how well- adapted to fire these sparse, dry forests are. Even in the few areas where the forest was dense enough to burn hot, turning trees into black snags, wreaths of green were sprouting around the tree bases. Just three months after the fire, most of the burned deciduous trees such as oaks were growing from their roots. Even Darlingtonia, the insect-eating pitcher plant of the area's hillside bogs, was coming back strong. Dozens of green shoots rose from the scorched remnants of older plants, like miniature green baseball bats emerging from the ooze. One surprise was that the fire burned the ground itself - the moss and duff that covers steep hillsides of this canyon land. Without that ground cover, rocks had slid down onto many of the trails. Everyone knows that rolling stones gather no moss, but it's less obvious that moss keeps stones from rolling. Another oddity was the holes we found snaking through burned ground. It looked as if a giant had repeatedly poked his hand into the ashy dirt, leaving 10-foot tubes where the fingers had been. We realized these holes must be the casts of ancient stumps and roots. After the fire swept through, dry wood must have smoldered underground for months, gradually turning to ash. We found proof for that theory the next day, when we hiked to Babyfoot Lake. The Kalmiopsis Wilderness has few lakes. One of the largest, Babyfoot Lake, would be rated as a large pond elsewhere. Here in the Klamath Mountains of southwest Oregon, it's a major attraction. I worried that the Biscuit Fire had left it desolate. The hike was not encouraging. For a mile, the trail traverses one of the bleakest forests inside the wilderness. At an elevation of 4,000 feet, this area had a dense stand of big, even-aged Douglas firs. The fire had ripped through the crowns, leaving black spires. Since the blaze, the burned stubs of beargrass had put out the area's only fresh leaves, and they'd been nibbled back by hungry deer. As we ate lunch by the lake, we noticed a wisp of smoke still curling from a smoldering snag, a last breath of the Biscuit Fire. At the lake itself, moisture from the cool water had preserved a ring of green around the shore, making the lake the calm eye of the area's firestorm. I climbed to a bluff high above the lake for a wider view. Yes, the lakeshore was a circle of green in a small black spot, but beyond stretched 40 miles of wilderness where virtually all of the old-growth trees had survived. In this larger picture, the forest had been rejuvenated, not devastated. Janell and I are fond of the Kalmiopsis, having backpacked through its wilds on trips since the 1970s. We came away from our visit reassured that our old friend was still as wild and beautiful as ever. Time will make it more so. Bill Sullivan lives in Eugene, Ore., and is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News in Paonia. |
#3
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At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire
In article , writes: I climbed to a bluff high above the lake for a wider view. Yes, the lakeshore was a circle of green in a small black spot, but beyond stretched 40 miles of wilderness where virtually all of the old-growth trees had survived. In this larger picture, the forest had been rejuvenated, not devastated. The beneficial effect of fire has been well known for centuries. The famous Great Fire of London in 1666 allowed architect Christopher Wren to rebuild a model city. It is often rumored that the emperor Nero burned Rome as a means of slum clearance. The Great Fire of Chicago in 1871 burned about the same percentage of the city as the Biscuit fire, and led to a great economic boom as the city was rebuilt. Unfortunately, our cities are suffering from a century of ill conceived fire suppression, leaving massive unhealthy areas of decaying buildings. We need to return to a policy of encouraging regular burns in our cities to clear the ground for new development. The old buildings that are well built will once again be exposed to sunlight as rapidly built but less durable buildings are consumed. Is that you Nero??? |
#4
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At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire
snip
The beneficial effect of fire has been well known for centuries. The famous Great Fire of London in 1666 allowed architect Christopher Wren to rebuild a model city. It is often rumored that the emperor Nero burned Rome as a means of slum clearance. The Great Fire of Chicago in 1871 burned about the same percentage of the city as the Biscuit fire, and led to a great economic boom as the city was rebuilt. Unfortunately, our cities are suffering from a century of ill conceived fire suppression, leaving massive unhealthy areas of decaying buildings. We need to return to a policy of encouraging regular burns in our cities to clear the ground for new development. The old buildings that are well built will once again be exposed to sunlight as rapidly built but less durable buildings are consumed. Nothing like a little black humor to point up a problem. There's too d.. many people out there. At least fire is cleaner than plague. |
#5
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At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire
In article ,
writes: Nothing like a little black humor to point up a problem. There's too d.. many people out there. At least fire is cleaner than plague. Actually, my point was that fire is a wonderful thing as long as it is somebody else's neighborhood that is burning down. I was at the Portland Community College Rock Creek campus a while back. There is about a 160 acre development of brand new town houses out there, all of them zero lot line with cedar roofs. Fifty years from now it will be a slum. Urban renewal is going to be easy in that neighborhood. When I was a teenager, there was a comedy song called "Little Boxes" about housing developments built out of identical units. My wife tells me that the last lumber mill in the Illinois Valley is scheduled to close in February. Losing that market is going to be a real blow to small woodland owners. You would think there might be enough salvage out of half a million acres of forest fire to keep one mill going, wouldn't you? -- http://home.teleport.com/~larryc |
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At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire
Larry Caldwell wrote:
In article , writes: Nothing like a little black humor to point up a problem. There's too d.. many people out there. At least fire is cleaner than plague. Actually, my point was that fire is a wonderful thing as long as it is somebody else's neighborhood that is burning down. I was at the Portland Community College Rock Creek campus a while back. There is about a 160 acre development of brand new town houses out there, all of them zero lot line with cedar roofs. Fifty years from now it will be a slum. Urban renewal is going to be easy in that neighborhood. When I was a teenager, there was a comedy song called "Little Boxes" about housing developments built out of identical units. My wife tells me that the last lumber mill in the Illinois Valley is scheduled to close in February. Losing that market is going to be a real blow to small woodland owners. You would think there might be enough salvage out of half a million acres of forest fire to keep one mill going, wouldn't you? You bet. Not that fire salvage HAS to take place everywhere - but in good locations, why not? Get Larry H. to mark em. I doubt that many ESA listed species are hanging about the hard burned spots. I just got a circular in the mail from the UW Rural Technology program (RTI). They've calculated that anyone growing DF above 24 inches diameter is now paying a $100 to $150 penalty when they sell. This is because remaining mills have retooled to small log/fast rotation fir. They saw a significan advantage for small Northwest timber growers to switch to 40 year rotation Red Alder and Red Cedar. Small sized Df logs are now a commodity which can't compete with world wide logs of similar size. Alder and cedar have niche markets which insulate them from world wide competion. |
#7
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At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire
In article ,
writes: I just got a circular in the mail from the UW Rural Technology program (RTI). They've calculated that anyone growing DF above 24 inches diameter is now paying a $100 to $150 penalty when they sell. This is because remaining mills have retooled to small log/fast rotation fir. Yeah, there has been a substantial large log penalty for about a year now. Fortunately, Roseburg Forest Products will still take large logs at its Glide mill. The large log mill at Dillard closed last year. Tell me, do they calculate the penalty on DBH or on the scale end of the log. I only have a few dozen trees that would be over 24" at the small end of a 40' log, but damn, half of my whole inventory is over 24" dbh. They saw a significan advantage for small Northwest timber growers to switch to 40 year rotation Red Alder and Red Cedar. Small sized Df logs are now a commodity which can't compete with world wide logs of similar size. Alder and cedar have niche markets which insulate them from world wide competion. I'm running a foot race to retirement with the dollar. How prosperous an old fart I will be depends on which one of us poops out first. Maybe I should just log the place and let the little trees grow, then sell out and move to the coast when I retire. -- http://home.teleport.com/~larryc |
#8
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At ground zero of the Biscuit Fire
Larry Caldwell wrote:
In article , writes: I just got a circular in the mail from the UW Rural Technology program (RTI). They've calculated that anyone growing DF above 24 inches diameter is now paying a $100 to $150 penalty when they sell. This is because remaining mills have retooled to small log/fast rotation fir. Yeah, there has been a substantial large log penalty for about a year now. Fortunately, Roseburg Forest Products will still take large logs at its Glide mill. The large log mill at Dillard closed last year. Tell me, do they calculate the penalty on DBH or on the scale end of the log. I only have a few dozen trees that would be over 24" at the small end of a 40' log, but damn, half of my whole inventory is over 24" dbh. They saw a significan advantage for small Northwest timber growers to switch to 40 year rotation Red Alder and Red Cedar. Small sized Df logs are now a commodity which can't compete with world wide logs of similar size. Alder and cedar have niche markets which insulate them from world wide competion. I'm running a foot race to retirement with the dollar. How prosperous an old fart I will be depends on which one of us poops out first. Maybe I should just log the place and let the little trees grow, then sell out and move to the coast when I retire. We're talking head rig size. Yep, either end, all logs. I'm sorry to say that lots of small landowners up here have finished the conversion to Alder, since "management" for Rd Alder is virtually the same as "management for real estate sales". Joe would say high grading. Still, it's pretty fool proof except for brush compettion and market swings. Any chance of putting some of your lands into conservancy? That could temper the blow. |
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