[Southern California Permaculture] Interesting article about Prescribed Burns by the California Chaparral Institute

Sat Nov 17 20:26:07 PST 2018

Interesting article about Prescribed Burns by the California Chaparral
Institute.   

http://www.californiachaparral.com/threatstochaparral/dprescribedfire.html?f
bclid=IwAR2mKv3QQ0L_9Vi5Y3eXWksCR5WwaLenBPwPr42mouHt8X7i1V9KXolqADY

CALIFORNIA CHAPARRAL INSTITUTE

"Prescribed" Fire

The fundamental problem with prescribed fires in California's native
shrublands is that there is too much fire in these ecosystems already,
threatening their continued existence. Prescribed fires do have a place in
mixed conifer forests,
but NOT in chaparral and sage scrub plant communities.

Why not in the chaparral?

1. Chaparral in California is threatened by too much fire.

Fire return intervals under 20 years can seriously compromise the ecological
health of chaparral either by eliminating keystone plant species (and their
associated animal partners) such as non-resprouting ceanothus and manzanita.

The fire departure map of the Cleveland National Forest on the left
demonstrates the threat. All the hot colors are areas that have more fire
than was historically the case. In other words, these areas are now being
threatened with
<http://www.californiachaparral.com/threatstochaparral.html> type conversion
from native shrublands to non-native weed patches.

Map: Safford and Schmidt 2008. US Forest Service.

The impact of a cool season prescribed burn in the late 1980s: weeds and the
destruction of the chaparral. Pinnacles National Park.

2. Unseasonal fire can eliminate a chaparral plant community.

There is a narrow window when prescribed burns can occur: in the cool season
(late spring, just before summer). This is because in the winter and early
spring months, chaparral plants have too much moisture within their tissues.
They won't carry a fire. In the summer and fall, the wildfire risk is too
high due to low moisture levels. As a consequence, prescribed burns are
conducted in the chaparral when it is the most vulnerable: the plants are
growing, the soil is still moist, many animal species are breeding, and
birds are using the ecosystem during their annual migrations.

We do not know the exact mechanisms, but cool season burns probably cause
significant damage to plant growth tissues and destroy seeds in the soil due
to soil moisture turning into steam. The result? As can be seen in the photo
above of a hillside in Pinnacles National Park, California, it can lead to
immediate type conversion to a non-native weed lot. This was the site of a
cool season prescribed burn in the late 1980's. The chaparral was destroyed
and has never come back.

The following USFS document discusses the ecological risks of prescribed
fire in chaparral and other plant communities:

<http://www.californiachaparral.com/images/Knapp_et_al_Eco_effects_of_prescr
ibed_fire_season_2009.pdf> Knapp, E.E., B.L. Estes, and C.N. Skinner.
Ecological effects of prescribed fire season: A Literature Review and
Synthesis for Managers. Gen. Tech. Report PSW-GTR-224. USDA, Forest Service.
PSW Research Station. 80p.

A quote from the paper cited above:

The bottom line is that the potential for shifts in the plant community
exists when the heat generated by prescribed burning is dissimilar to what
would have been experienced with the fire regime that species evolved with.

The 2006 Sierra Fire, an escaped prescribed burn. Not only does the fire
cause damage, but so do fire suppression activities such as dozer lines.
Photo: Stephen Francis

3. Prescribed burns escape, threatening communities and causing significant
ecological damage.

The list of escaped prescribed burns is legendary. To name a few:

*
<http://www.californiachaparral.com/images/Cohen_Cerro_Grande_Fire_Examinati
on_of_Home_Destruction_in_Los_Alamos_2000.pdf> 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, Los
Alamos, New Mexico. 48,000 acres burned, more than 280 homes lost.

*
<http://www.californiachaparral.com/images/FB_19_Sierra_Fire_and_Tecate_Cypr
ess.pdf> 2006 Sierra Fire, Cleveland National Forest, CA. 10,854 acres
burned.

*
<http://www.californiachaparral.com/images/Montana_de_Oro_State_Park_Escaped
_Fire.pdf> 2012 Creek Fire, Montana de Oro State Park, CA. 103 acres burned.

*         2013 San Felipe Fire, San Felipe Valley Wildlife Area, CA. 2,781
acres burned. See below.

Why the National Park Service does NOT use prescribed fire
in the Santa Monica Mountains

In the last forty years fire managers have promoted the idea that prescribed
fire is necessary to protect ecosystems and communities by restoring fire's
natural role in the environment to thin forest stands and to reduce
hazardous fuels. This is true for western forests where the natural fire
regime was frequent, low intensity surface fires started by lightning, and
for many other ecosystems like southern longleaf pine forests, Florida
palmetto scrub, and the Great Plains tall grass prairies. However, this is
not true for the shrubland dominated ecosystems of southern California and
the Santa Monica Mountains.

To read more, please go the the
<http://www.nps.gov/samo/parkmgmt/prescribedfires.htm> Santa Monica
Mountains National Recreation Area website.

Also an important paper that indicates "a serious need for a re-evaluation
of current fire management and policy, which is based largely on eliminating
older stands of shrubland vegetation."
 <http://www.californiachaparral.com/images/How_important_is_fuel_age.pdf>
Moritz, M.A., J.E. Keeley, E.A. Johnson, A.A. Schaffner. Testing the basic
assumption of shrubland fire management: how important is fuel age? Front
Ecol Environment 2: 67-72.

When Prescribed Fires Go Wrong
The San Felipe Escaped Fire

On May 23, 2013, with the approval of the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife, Cal Fire started a 100 acre "prescribed" burn within the protected
San Felipe Valley Wildlife Area which is just east of the mountain town of
Julian in San Diego County. The fire escaped and proceeded to burn more than
2,700 acres of fragile habitat within the protected area. Much of it had
previously burned in the 2002 Pines Fire. Considering the ecological
fragility of the area due to recent fires and the lack of any community
nearby, we are wondering what these two agencies were thinking. Reburning an
area that had burned 11 years ago causes serious ecological damage.

We visited the burn site and have obtained documents relating to the fire
from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife which has jurisdiction
over the Wildlife Area. Here are our findings:

*         the rationale for the Project was ecologically unsound

*         claims that the Project would reduce wildfire impacts and provide
indirect community protection to Julian and Shelter Valley are unsupportable

*         the Project and the escaped fire caused significant environmental
damage to a protected, rare, and environmentally sensitive habitat

*         fire suppression activities damaged riparian areas and possibly
cultural sites

*         the Project violated the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife's 2009 Land
Management Plan for the San Felipe Valley Wildlife Area

*         Cal Fire may have violated its burn prescription plan

*         Cal Fire appears to have ignored a National Weather Service Wind
Advisory on the date of the burn

In light of these conclusions we recommend the establishment of an official
protocol for both the Department and Cal Fire to determine the efficacy and
ecological impact of major vegetation treatments that includes an
independent, outside review of projects while in the initial planning
stages.

Read our
<http://www.californiachaparral.com/images/CDFW_San_Felipe_escaped_fire.pdf>
full report here.

The remains of burned, eleven-year-old, recovering chamise shrubs can be
seen on the right in addition to the significant soil disturbance caused by
the bulldozers during the fire suppression action. The fragile desert
streambed (below the line of sight) was also compromised by dozer action.

Fire Map: Above is the fire history map of the semi-desert area where the
San Felipe escaped fire burned. As you can see, this landscape does not have
much left in terms of habitat that hasn't burned over the last decade. It is
not resilient to the kind of abuse caused by Cal Fire's out of control
wildfire.

The burned Engelmann oak grove. These trees provided critical habitat before
they were taken out by the fire. Engelmann oaks typically do not recover
very well after being hit by a fire.

The future of the San Felipe Valley Wildlife area? Weeds? The landscape in
the foreground was burned in 2012. It is across the street from the San
Felipe escaped burn.

For more on why such a fire is so damaging to the environment and
information on Cal Fire's ill-conceived plan to increase this kind of
harmful activity across the entire state,
<http://www.californiachaparral.com/threatstochaparral/helpcalfireeir.html>
please see our CalFire EIR page.

(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.org
 <http://www.sbpermaculture.org/> http://www.sbpermaculture.org

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

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