Sustainability is one of the more popular buzz words today. Our communities must be sustainable. Our lifestyle must be sustainable.

No doubt we all realize that allowing our overgrown forests & the wildlife in them to be incinerated by unnatural Wildfires is not sustainable. Massive efforts by fire fighters on the California Sequoia Piute Fire have achieved a mere 28% containment at a cost of over $23,000,000 while 37,026 acres have been devastated, according to a 7/17/08 Forest Report. Is bankrupting ourselves sustainable?

Let’s all consider most of our forests are ripe for unnatural Wildfires like the Piute Fire. Over 1400 other unnatural Wildfires have burned over 700,000 acres this month in California alone at an estimated cost of over $500,000,000. This was predicted to happen by forest mangers & could have been prevented though active forest management to reduce fuel loads. Yes that will mean many trees will need to be cut down to thin the forest to natural density & a vocal minority abhor the idea of logging. We are seeing the results of their misguided lawsuits blocking forest management & it is destroying our forests, wildlife & air quality, while bankrupting us.

There was a time not too long ago when timber receipts paid for recreation facilities, as well as promoting forest health, supplying a renewable resource, providing jobs & paying taxes. Now that special interests have virtually eliminated logging, we are told we must “Pay to Play” in forests that look more like lunar landscapes.

Please contact Congressman McCarthy’s office at 661 327-3611 & ask him to help us stop the destruction of our forests by supporting active forest management to make them sustainable.
You can read more at http://www.StewardsOfTheSequoia.org/ForestFacts-WildfireFacts.html

Chris Horgan
Executive Director
Stewards of the Sequoia
Division of CTUC 501c3

If you ever have questions about forestnews I’d be happy to help you…

You can see my data set for my international forest governance research project at:

http://olyecology.livejournal.com

Be well, Deane

Smoke levels have steadily increased in Willits and the surrounding areas due to the high pressure system and the calm, hot air since Monday, July 7. The smoke levels have returned to their initial level when the fire broke out June 20.

We only have time for a very brief blog and our thanks to all those who helped us.

We awoke at 3:30 AM Saturday June 21 to thunder and lightening and awoke a second time at 7:00AM to the smell of smoke. We had two lightening strikes and a third fire that approached us from Gates Creek, That first morning we found the fire and began to fight it with shovels. That afternoon we found the McClouds and fought on until the fire from Gates Creek threatened our escape to the north side of Soda CReek. Since that fateful morning, we have learned an incredible amount about the fire and ourselves and although nearly a 1000 acres of our ranch has burned in many ways it has been a blessing. We fought this fire on our own for nearly a week. As soon as Cal Fire had the resources they sent Engine 1464 to help and they have bravely fought the fire. Thank you Henry, Drew and Bobby. Many resources followed and we are most appreciative of all of their help. Also we appreciate the leadership of Brian Kornegay and Mark Tolbert and the resources they sent our way when we most needed them.

There are so many people who dropped everything and came to the ranch to help with the fire and without their help I feel confident that the west flank of the fire would have extended much further west and likely north to the south fork of Big River. No thanks will fully express my gratitude. Those people include my husband Craig Blencowe and in alphabetical order Christopher Blencowe, Matt Bardella, Monica Hernandez, Brian Hodge, John Iverson, Donny Iverson, Natti Lopez, Manny Lopez, Chalsey Phariss, Bob Maddocks, Mike Maddocks, Chandra Nellis, Ken Smith, Steve Smith, Brandi Stahl, my sons Travis and Cody Steele, and Don Weger.

I also want to acknowledge the brillant efforts of our neighbor Ray Medley who saved his house with a shovel, rake and broom…

We were awesome.

I wish we had had the time to blog more but we were simply too busy fighting the fire. We are back to the Ranch today and wishing the best of luck to all of us to maintain containment.

Best Wishes,
Lisa Weger (that’s with an E)