[env-trinity] Redding.com opinion Nadine Bailey: Firefighters train with purpose

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.redding.com/opinion/nadine-bailey-firefighters-train-with-purpose_81333322

Nadine Bailey: Firefighters train with purpose
7:57 PM, Oct 9, 20157:18 PM, Oct 14, 2015The crew gathers around to receive one final briefing as the sun begins to set and the humidity climbs. As in most of the mountains of Northern California, the night air calms the wind and the rising humidity allows fires to be started inside of a framework of barriers and fire lines that have been pre-built to protect structures and to keep the fire inside the property boundaries.The radio crackles and the command is given to start burning. With drip torches in hand the crews light strings of fire along the forest floor that glow like Jack O’ Lanterns in the night.Unlike the summer fires, which roared with a force that could not be stopped, these fires will not break through the canopy of trees, but instead will burn brush under the trees until that fuel is consumed, creating a chance to for a property owner to save his home and property when the next fire comes.While it might seem strange to set fires in this year when we have seen so much destruction from fire, that is what is happening on the Klamath River.In September the Valley fire in Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties left 76,067 acres charred, 1,280 homes destroyed and four people dead in what has become one of the worst fires in California history. Like fires that nearly destroyed Burney and Weed last year, the Valley fire continues to drive home the need for something to be done to lessen the threat of wildfire to communities in California. While many people argue over the methods of removal of hazardous fuels, common sense tells us that something must be done, and quickly.After the small town of Orleans was twice nearly consumed by fire, a small group of concerned citizens decided they could wait no more.Isolated and remote, the small community of Orleans is on the north side of the Klamath River. Turn right on Highway 96 at Willow Creek and follow the highway along the Trinity River through the Hoopa Valley to Weitchpec and you will find the Klamath River. Large and slow moving, it snakes through canyons so steep that on winter days they refuse to let the sun touch the ground.The rugged terrain along the Klamath River is unique in both geological and geographic features. The highway follows the river past canyons lined with giant Woodwardia ferns, Jurassic reminders of a timeless world. On many evenings the ocean fog is pulled up the river like a blanket, giving the Klamath moisture that other California forests lack.Orleans this fall is the site of the Klamath River Training Exchange, a cooperative effort between the Salmon River Restoration Council, Mid Klamath Watershed Council, the Karuk Tribe and the Nature Conservancy, to train people, traditional method of fuel reduction, used by tribes in the area for generations, prescribed fire. The concept of prescribed fire is to burn in a weather condition that allows fire to clean up the forest floor, without killing and damaging healthy trees. It can serve as way to combat bug infestations and a way to encourage native grasses and beneficial plants to replace hazardous fuels. The Klamath River is perfect classroom setting to learn about how and why prescribed fire can help lessen danger from the years of non-management and drought have created in our forests.Experts like Fire Storm, mentor young forest workers and fire crews in techniques learned in decades of using proscribed fire. Skills learned in this training could help firefighters lessen the damage of back-burns used during wildfires as well as increasing the black zones that allow fire fighters to find safety, before the wildfires start again next year.Into the black is the term that firefighters use, to name a place that crews can retreat to if a fire turns back or blows up due to a change in weather or fuel loads. That is what prescribed fire is giving to towns and properties on the Klamath River. More than 20 projects have been completed that turn anywhere from several acres to over 100 in to a strip of forest that has burned from the ground up to the bottom branches of oaks and conifers. These projects are clearly visible on the landscape, as the fire has removed brush, poison oak, old stumps and leaves from the forest floor.Like a lady lifting up her long hoop skirts to reveal her legs, fire has revealed a landscape long hidden by decades of fire suppression. Prescribed fire combined with defensible space can add time to what can be a matter of minutes for people who have to leave their homes in a fire emergency.Last year on the Forest Service spent about 50 percent of its budget to fight fire. Imagine taking a small part of the millions of dollars spent each year on firefighting and directing it toward fuel management in the fall. Maybe then we can stop losing lives, property and forests, to out-of-control wildfires.Maybe then the fire that is destroying forests can be used as tool to save forests and the people the people who love them.
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