Why, and how, forest managers burn

Pile burning is a step toward creating desired conditions in groves

Volume 1, Number 30 - Monday, Feb. 27, 2023

Now twice a week — Monday and Thursday mornings!

Here are some photos Sierra National Forest shared on Facebook in early February of pile burning work underway at the Nelder Grove Historic Area. The work was done by the Crane Valley Hotshots and was challenging because melting snow was saturating the piles. — Photo by Jolina Elliott, lead firefighter, Crane Valley Hotshots, Bass Lake Ranger District, Sierra National Forest

Perspective

LAST MONDAY, I wrote about the importance of following thinning with burning in forest management, what an article in High Country News called the “one-two punch.”

Subscriber David Richardson, who I’ve known since the early 2000s when I published the Southern Sierra Messenger in Springville, California, asked me if the pile burning taking place in giant sequoia groves this winter is the kind of beneficial burning referenced by environmental historian Stephen Pyne in the HCN article.

I suspect my friend David was recalling many presentations about forest management sponsored by Friends of the Tule River during the time that organization was active in Springville. And that he probably knew that pile burning is not the only kind of intentional burning that takes place as part of forest management. 

I followed up with Gretchen Fitzgerald, ecosystem staff officer of the Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument, for an explanation. You can read more from my interview with her in this Thursday’s edition.

Pile burning, Fitzgerald explained, is different from broadcast burning. And it’s broadcast burning that is often touted as important in management of giant sequoias. 

Bruce Kilgore, one of the first National Park Service scientists to study fire, discussed some early efforts using broadcast burning HERE. Here’s an excerpt:

“Fire in the sequoia-mixed conifer forest provides soft, friable soil on which the light-weight sequoia seeds fall and in which they are buried (Hartesveldt and Harvey 1967). By consuming the accumulation of down branches, litter, and duff, fire allows the seed to reach mineral soil. And in heating the soil, fire changes the texture in a way which allows a seed to be covered by a few millimeters of soil as a result of its fall from the tree, thus promoting germination.”

Kilgore wrote those words in the early 1970s and his presentation at a related symposium included this:

“In all probability, the giant sequoia survives today because of the role fire plays in the ecosystem operation of a sequoia-mixed conifer forest. Fire must be restored, as nearly as possible, to that natural role if we are to continue to have giant sequoias through the next many millenniums.”

The high severity wildfires experienced since 2015 are not the kind of fire that is beneficial to giant sequoias — and opportunities to do prescribed burning that scientists have determined helpful are limited.

Fitzgerald said prescribed broadcast burning generally takes place in the fall, although in some cases a spring burn may be possible.

Firefighters must put a fire line around outside the area to be treated with a broadcast burn. Cool weather without wind is important so the firefighters can maintain control of the fire. The aim is to burn the floor and controlling flame length and intensity is essential. 

“It requires a lot of outside support to keep low severity fire across the forest floor,” Fitzgerald said.

While many people agree that such fire is beneficial, it also can be risky. In addition to producing unhealthy smoke, there is always a concern that a fire can get away.

In April 2022, two prescribed fires escaped in New Mexico. One of them, the Hermits Peak / Calf Canyon Fire, became the largest wildfire in the state’s history. It destroyed at least 903 structures, including hundreds of homes, and burned more than 340,000 acres between early April and late June.

While that fire was burning, in May of last year, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore called a “pause” in prescribed fire operations on national forest lands. In September 2022 he said the agency had completed a 90-day review of its practices and would resume prescribed fire operations.

In California, last May researchers at the University of California, Irvine, called for more prescribed burning within the state, and in September, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that Senator Bill Dodd said will “enhance wildfire prevention through implementation of a $20 million prescribed fire claims fund.”

“California’s wildfires have been getting worse every year in recent decades, owing to factors such as climate change and a century-long fire deficit coupled with a buildup of vegetation and fuels,” said study leader Tirtha Banerjee, UCI assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Prescribed burns can help alleviate this problem, but only if they’re done with adequate frequency and over a large enough territory in the places where they are needed.”

Among the challenges, of course, is educating the public and having the politicians pay attention long enough to follow through. It’s hard to get people excited about ways to prevent wildfires or respond to drought-related issues when the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is nearly double the average.

In the meantime, the pile burning continues as an efficient way to clear the vegetation assembled during the giant sequoia emergency response last year. It’s also a step toward creating the conditions that will eventually allow broadcast burning.

And, Fitzgerald said, it’s not without some ecological benefit.

“One of the main objectives is to get rid of the fuel but (pile burning) also recycles the nutrients on site,” she said, “and as they burn the piles we hope some green sequoia cones will release their seeds.”

A drip torch or a ‘drop flashlight?’ 

While I’m on the subject of burning, I found a funny story online last week that provides an interesting example of how online media outlets share content — and also how stories about giant sequoias have international appeal.

HERE MSN.com presents (if you click enough buttons) a photo story with a headline referencing Sequoia National Park using controlled fire to prevent fires. The photos include burning in Sequoia National Forest. And the source of the article is HERE, which if you click through you will see is an Italian news website where the same photos appear with (of course) captions in Italian. 

I suspect the MSN.com “article” was generated by some sort of automated application to pull content from one website to another and translate it from Italian to English. 

It’s not uncommon for far-away media to confuse Sequoia National Park and Sequoia National Forest. But the funniest thing in the MSN.com piece is that the term “drip torch,” which is the tool that workers use to set controlled burns, was translated (from the Italian) as a “drop flashlight.”

 Note: In the top left hand photo above the red can with a handle is a drip torch. I would not confuse it with a flashlight. But I do know that people in some countries call flashlights torches.

Wildfire, water & weather update

The proverbial “sunny California” turned into “snowy California” last week. Snow fell not only at higher elevations but in many other areas where snow is unusual — the redwoods of the north coast, the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, Hearst Castle — and even further south. Aside from the novelty — and considerable inconvenience for travelers — the Sierra Nevada snowpack is impressive, epic even. You can read more about it in this article from the San Francisco Chronicle. Here’s a GIFT LINK.

Drought update: A new California drought map was released last Thursday and didn’t appear to be different from the previous week. With all of the rain and snow, you might wonder why. An explanation of drought can be found HERE. As the National Weather Service explains, drought can be defined in four different ways — meteorological, hydrological, agricultural and socioeconomic. The agricultural definition — a situation where the amount of moisture in the soil no longer meets the needs of a particular crop — might also be applied to plants growing in nature. Climate change, which we might view as drought, may mean that the conditions that supported plant growth in a certain area no longer exist. By any definition, even though this winter has brought considerable rain and snow, the drought persists to some degree in all areas of California except the northwest corner (Del Norte County).

Wildfire update: CLICK HERE for the latest Incident Management Situation Report. Other areas of the country are experiencing unseasonably warm and dry weather while California is getting soaked.

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Giant sequoias in the news

• From NPR: Michigan-based Archangel Ancient Tree Archive announced this week that it has successfully cloned a giant sequoia tree planted by renowned conservationist John Muir. The tree that Muir transplanted from Yosemite to his home in the Bay Area about 130 years ago is apparently dying. You can read more HERE. And even more, with photos, HERE.

• In San Francisco’s Garfield Square, an unusual giant sequoia tree snapped nearly in half during a recent windstorm. It’s worth a click HERE to see the photos of the tree that may have been planted in 1884. Unlike most giant sequoias, this one had “spread itself wide, with three trunks and numerous branches growing from each limb. One of its trunks snapped clean off in the wind,” according to the article. A car and telephone pole were smashed by the broken limb. From the article: “Giant sequoias are supposed to grow straight and strong. Because it’s so windy here, they grow three trunks,” said Antonio Caceres, who works in Garfield Square with San Francisco Recreation and Parks. “Now that one side’s gone, it’s liable to either fall this way or that.” He noted that the tree may have to be removed.

• The Sequoia Shuttle, operated by Visit Visalia, will operate this year from May 25 to Sept. 10. The shuttle offers very affordable transportation from Visalia and Exeter to Sequoia National Park. You can make reservations HERE. To kick off the start of the season, two discounted promotional days are offered. On May 25 the roundtrip is only $5 per person and on May 26 it will be $10 per person. The regular price is $20 per person. No promo code is required, just reserve while space is available.

Historic photo of the week

The man on horseback is near the base of the Mark Twain Tree in what is now Kings Canyon National Park that was felled by the U.S. Army in 1891 for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. At the time the area was part of General Grant National Park, established in 1890 (the park was expanded and renamed in 1940). According to the National Park Service, It was difficult to get to giant sequoia groves in the 1800s and many people didn't believe the trees could grow so large. The tree was cut down and sections removed so it could be displayed to crowds in New York and London. You can read more HERE. — NPS via Calisphere

Giant sequoias around the world

You might not expect to find a giant sequoia in Africa, but the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden is the oldest university botanical garden in South Africa and not just giant sequoia, but also coastal redwood and dawn redwood grow there. The university provides a variety of names for the tree — Mamoetboom, Giant redwood, Giant sequoia, Sierra redwood and Wellingtonia. It appears that there are at least three specimens but no information is provided on when they were planted. You can see a photo HERE.

Thanks for reading!