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The CZU Lightning Complex Fire burning in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties started Aug. 16 during a lightning storm. The current update from Wednesday’s CalFire press conference shows: 80,137 acres. It is 19% contained. There are still approximately 25,000 structures threatened. 538 homes have been destroyed, 527 of those are in Santa Cruz County. There are now 1,697 firefighters working the fire. Monday, significant progress was made to contain the fire. Helicopters dropped over 200,000 gallons of water on the fire and at today's briefing, Cal Fire Command challenged their team to meet or exceed that goal, providing that the weather cooperates. The Highway 9 corridor continues to be an active area with challenging terrain and access. However, Cal Fire is actively working on suppression and constructing breaks in that area. These twice daily reports inform us of the progress being made in our beloved Santa Cruz Mountain communities. The reports are filled with sad news of homes destroyed, loss of human and animal life. Not one Santa Cruz County resident feels more pain and suffering than those who have lost a home, a business, or personal belongings in the evacuated areas on northern Santa Cruz County and southern San Mateo County. But we yearn to hear the good news — such as a turn for the better in our weather — that has helped our first responders get an upper hand on fires. We look for the next few days to get us closer to containment of the most devastating fire our region has ever faced. But there is a hidden story that needs to be heard. CZU Lightning Complex Fire has made a devastation to the San Lorenzo Valley and north coastal communities, but the fire has mostly burned redwood forest land. In addition to Big Basin, the fire has made its way through undeveloped parts of Henry Cowell Redwoods, Butano, Portola Redwoods, upper Wilder Ranch and Cascade Ranch at Año Nuevo State parks, in areas with lots of dead brush due to generations of fire suppression. The last time a major fire burned in the Santa Cruz Mountains was 1948, when the Pine Mountain Fire blackened 16,000 acres between Boulder Creek and Bonny Doon. In 1904, a large fire at Big Basin prompted the New York Times to report that the park “seems doomed to destruction, though hundreds of men are fighting the fires.” But only the eastern third of the park burned. Generations of visitors since have marveled at the 250-foot trees bearing black scars from that fire. The Big Basin has a special place in the history of the Santa Cruz County Chamber. If you are a regular reader of this eNews, you may recall our past article of the chamber’s 131 years. In 1900, the Chamber worked with a group of conservationists called the Sempervirens Club in the effort to save the redwood forests of Big Basin. The building of the Big Tree Road was done under the supervision of the Board of Trade (the Chamber). In 1902, the first California redwood park was created — Big Basin State Park. This historic fire that roared through the ancient redwoods of Big Basin Redwoods State Park blackening all 18,000 acres of California’s oldest state park and destroying its historic buildings, has drawn international attention and prompted an outpouring of grief and concern. Fire has always been part of California's landscape. But long before the vast blazes of recent years, Native American tribes held annual controlled burns that cleared out underbrush and encouraged new plant growth. When Western settlers forcibly removed tribes from their land and banned religious ceremonies, cultural burning largely disappeared. Instead, state and federal authorities focused on swiftly extinguishing wildfires. But fire suppression has only made California's wildfire risk worse. Without regular burns, the landscape grew thick with vegetation that dries out every summer, creating kindling for the fires that have recently destroyed California communities. Climate change and warming temperatures make those landscapes even more fire-prone. Before 1800, several million acres burned every year in California due to both Indigenous burning and lightning-caused fires, far more than even the worst wildfire years today. Tribes used low-grade fires to shape the landscape, encouraging certain plants to grow both for tribal use and to attract game. The arrival of Western settlers dramatically changed the fire regime. They came with their concepts of being afraid of fire. They didn't understand fire in the sense of the tool that it could be to create and what it did to help generate and rejuvenate the land. So they brought in suppression. Certainly, no one imagined the devastation that would come from the dry lightning storms that hit us last week leading to the fires that our first responders are heroically fighting. It was a moment that took us by surprise in how fast and how quickly the fires moved and bounced uncontrollably in our mountain communities. Fire scientists who have carefully studied other coastal redwood forests after wildfires have surprisingly good news: Don’t worry, they say, even though the forest looks terrible now, most of the trees will recover. It will not be a 100 years of recovery, but much sooner. Amazingly, most of the giant, scorched black trees will begin sprouting green leaves again by this winter, when rains begin. Coast redwoods, the tallest trees on Earth, have the Latin name Sequoia Sempervirens, which means “ever-living Sequoia.” Their breathtaking ability to stand tall in the face of floods, fires and other calamities is how they live to be up to 2,000 years old. Individual trees at Big Basin today were standing during the Roman Empire. And, the scientists say, they will endure. In the days ahead, our fire fighters will contain this monster fire and we will begin the long arduous road to rebuild our communities. Part of that re-development must also include discussion on how we manage our forests in the future. I am a California Governor Appointee to the Lake Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) board since 2009. Before I became a board member, Tahoe suffered a devastating fire — the Angora Fire — that destroyed homes along the southwest ridge above the Lake. That horrible tragic fire was a turning point for Lake Tahoe. The lake, as you may know, is surrounded by national forests taking up a majority of the acreage of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Out of the ashes of the Angora Fire came the development of many Forest Management programs led by the TRPA in partnership with the National Forest Service and the fire district departments in all areas of Lake Tahoe. They developed programs for defensible space around structures, and created Lake Tahoe West Restoration Partnership— Resilient Forests, Watersheds, and Communities. https://www.nationalforests.org/who-we-are/regional-offices/california-program/laketahoewest. In 2018, the Chamber’s Community Leadership Visit (CLV) was a trip to Lake Tahoe. That visit was an opportunity to learn how the leaders at the Lake work in partnerships to foster environmental as well as economic benefits in balance. Forest Management is a critical part of the Lake Basin health and contributes to help the lake’s water clarity. Tahoe has similar small rural communities like we do in the Santa Cruz Mountains: In 2004, the TRPA Governing Board established forest fuels management as the Agency’s number one priority. TRPA changed rules to facilitate fuels projects in stream zones dangerously overloaded with brush and dead timber. The agency has signed agreements with all fire districts to encourage defensible space and provide one-stop-shopping to get tree removal permits and protect homes and businesses from wildfire. Similar agreements are in the works with California fire districts. Using grant funds, the Agency lead the collaborative effort to help the seven fire protection districts around the lake develop fire risk assessments, called Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPS). These assessments identify high fire risk areas, prioritize forest fuels projects, and estimate costs of reducing fuels in the wild land-urban interface. The completion of the individual fire district assessments is a critical step in securing the funding necessary to implement these important fuels management projects. The forests within the Santa Cruz Mountains are mostly open state lands and county property with private property owners mixed in the rural mountain communities of our county. One lesson learned through our CLV visit to Lake Tahoe was answered in a question to Joanne Marchetta, the Executive Director of the TRPA. We asked her, “How can you manage a bi-state government agency that balances the decisions to protect the lake and promote the economic vitality of the region?” The answer: Through positive collaborations and public private partnerships. Is it time to begin the discussion of forest management in a different way for our county? I think we need to re-imagine how the future of our mountain communities are developed in balance with nature. We know that natural disasters are part of Santa Cruz County’s DNA - and we are resilient in our collaborative efforts to rebuild.
The CZU Lightning Complex Fire burning in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties started Aug. 16 during a lightning storm. The current update from Wednesday’s CalFire press conference shows: 80,137 acres. It is 19% contained. There are still approximately 25,000 structures threatened. 538 homes have been destroyed, 527 of those are in Santa Cruz County. There are now 1,697 firefighters working the fire. Monday, significant progress was made to contain the fire. Helicopters dropped over 200,000 gallons of water on the fire and at today's briefing, Cal Fire Command challenged their team to meet or exceed that goal, providing that the weather cooperates. The Highway 9 corridor continues to be an active area with challenging terrain and access. However, Cal Fire is actively working on suppression and constructing breaks in that area.
These twice daily reports inform us of the progress being made in our beloved Santa Cruz Mountain communities. The reports are filled with sad news of homes destroyed, loss of human and animal life. Not one Santa Cruz County resident feels more pain and suffering than those who have lost a home, a business, or personal belongings in the evacuated areas on northern Santa Cruz County and southern San Mateo County. But we yearn to hear the good news — such as a turn for the better in our weather — that has helped our first responders get an upper hand on fires.
We look for the next few days to get us closer to containment of the most devastating fire our region has ever faced. But there is a hidden story that needs to be heard.
CZU Lightning Complex Fire has made a devastation to the San Lorenzo Valley and north coastal communities, but the fire has mostly burned redwood forest land. In addition to Big Basin, the fire has made its way through undeveloped parts of Henry Cowell Redwoods, Butano, Portola Redwoods, upper Wilder Ranch and Cascade Ranch at Año Nuevo State parks, in areas with lots of dead brush due to generations of fire suppression. The last time a major fire burned in the Santa Cruz Mountains was 1948, when the Pine Mountain Fire blackened 16,000 acres between Boulder Creek and Bonny Doon.
In 1904, a large fire at Big Basin prompted the New York Times to report that the park “seems doomed to destruction, though hundreds of men are fighting the fires.” But only the eastern third of the park burned. Generations of visitors since have marveled at the 250-foot trees bearing black scars from that fire.
The Big Basin has a special place in the history of the Santa Cruz County Chamber. If you are a regular reader of this eNews, you may recall our past article of the chamber’s 131 years. In 1900, the Chamber worked with a group of conservationists called the Sempervirens Club in the effort to save the redwood forests of Big Basin. The building of the Big Tree Road was done under the supervision of the Board of Trade (the Chamber). In 1902, the first California redwood park was created — Big Basin State Park.
This historic fire that roared through the ancient redwoods of Big Basin Redwoods State Park blackening all 18,000 acres of California’s oldest state park and destroying its historic buildings, has drawn international attention and prompted an outpouring of grief and concern.
Fire has always been part of California's landscape. But long before the vast blazes of recent years, Native American tribes held annual controlled burns that cleared out underbrush and encouraged new plant growth.
When Western settlers forcibly removed tribes from their land and banned religious ceremonies, cultural burning largely disappeared. Instead, state and federal authorities focused on swiftly extinguishing wildfires.
But fire suppression has only made California's wildfire risk worse. Without regular burns, the landscape grew thick with vegetation that dries out every summer, creating kindling for the fires that have recently destroyed California communities. Climate change and warming temperatures make those landscapes even more fire-prone.
Before 1800, several million acres burned every year in California due to both Indigenous burning and lightning-caused fires, far more than even the worst wildfire years today. Tribes used low-grade fires to shape the landscape, encouraging certain plants to grow both for tribal use and to attract game.
The arrival of Western settlers dramatically changed the fire regime.
They came with their concepts of being afraid of fire. They didn't understand fire in the sense of the tool that it could be to create and what it did to help generate and rejuvenate the land. So they brought in suppression.
Certainly, no one imagined the devastation that would come from the dry lightning storms that hit us last week leading to the fires that our first responders are heroically fighting. It was a moment that took us by surprise in how fast and how quickly the fires moved and bounced uncontrollably in our mountain communities.
Fire scientists who have carefully studied other coastal redwood forests after wildfires have surprisingly good news: Don’t worry, they say, even though the forest looks terrible now, most of the trees will recover.
It will not be a 100 years of recovery, but much sooner. Amazingly, most of the giant, scorched black trees will begin sprouting green leaves again by this winter, when rains begin. Coast redwoods, the tallest trees on Earth, have the Latin name Sequoia Sempervirens, which means “ever-living Sequoia.” Their breathtaking ability to stand tall in the face of floods, fires and other calamities is how they live to be up to 2,000 years old. Individual trees at Big Basin today were standing during the Roman Empire. And, the scientists say, they will endure.
In the days ahead, our fire fighters will contain this monster fire and we will begin the long arduous road to rebuild our communities. Part of that re-development must also include discussion on how we manage our forests in the future.
I am a California Governor Appointee to the Lake Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) board since 2009. Before I became a board member, Tahoe suffered a devastating fire — the Angora Fire — that destroyed homes along the southwest ridge above the Lake. That horrible tragic fire was a turning point for Lake Tahoe. The lake, as you may know, is surrounded by national forests taking up a majority of the acreage of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Out of the ashes of the Angora Fire came the development of many Forest Management programs led by the TRPA in partnership with the National Forest Service and the fire district departments in all areas of Lake Tahoe. They developed programs for defensible space around structures, and created Lake Tahoe West Restoration Partnership— Resilient Forests, Watersheds, and Communities. https://www.nationalforests.org/who-we-are/regional-offices/california-program/laketahoewest.
In 2018, the Chamber’s Community Leadership Visit (CLV) was a trip to Lake Tahoe. That visit was an opportunity to learn how the leaders at the Lake work in partnerships to foster environmental as well as economic benefits in balance. Forest Management is a critical part of the Lake Basin health and contributes to help the lake’s water clarity.
Tahoe has similar small rural communities like we do in the Santa Cruz Mountains: In 2004, the TRPA Governing Board established forest fuels management as the Agency’s number one priority. TRPA changed rules to facilitate fuels projects in stream zones dangerously overloaded with brush and dead timber. The agency has signed agreements with all fire districts to encourage defensible space and provide one-stop-shopping to get tree removal permits and protect homes and businesses from wildfire. Similar agreements are in the works with California fire districts. Using grant funds, the Agency lead the collaborative effort to help the seven fire protection districts around the lake develop fire risk assessments, called Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPS). These assessments identify high fire risk areas, prioritize forest fuels projects, and estimate costs of reducing fuels in the wild land-urban interface. The completion of the individual fire district assessments is a critical step in securing the funding necessary to implement these important fuels management projects.
The forests within the Santa Cruz Mountains are mostly open state lands and county property with private property owners mixed in the rural mountain communities of our county. One lesson learned through our CLV visit to Lake Tahoe was answered in a question to Joanne Marchetta, the Executive Director of the TRPA. We asked her, “How can you manage a bi-state government agency that balances the decisions to protect the lake and promote the economic vitality of the region?” The answer: Through positive collaborations and public private partnerships. Is it time to begin the discussion of forest management in a different way for our county? I think we need to re-imagine how the future of our mountain communities are developed in balance with nature. We know that natural disasters are part of Santa Cruz County’s DNA - and we are resilient in our collaborative efforts to rebuild.