August Complex recovery in 3 phases
State's largest wildfire on record burned more than 1 million acres in 2020
Mendocino National Forest staff discussed ongoing recovery in the 2020 August Complex fire during a virtual meeting held Thursday among forest service staff and researchers.
The fires, 38 in total, were ignited by lightning strikes on Aug. 16 and went on to burn 1,032,648 acres over the next three months, making it the largest wildfire in California history. More than 612,000 of the forest’s 913,300 acres were burned in the fire.
On Nov. 16, the forest supervisors of the Mendocino, Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity National Forests formed a post-fire rapid assessment team, and later, the Mendocino National Forest put together its own rapid assessment to determine how to move forward.
Staff came up with a three-phased approach: first, addressing immediate needs (where they are right now); second, to come up with any restoration opportunities from phase one; and lastly, the long-term, 3-5 year, big-picture plan. A majority of Thursday’s two-hour meeting concerned the first two phases.
“We had to look at our own capacity and other must- do projects to come up with what is a realistic workload,” said Hilda Kwan, a hydrologist with the Mendocino National Forest. “We also used our local knowledge of the focus areas on what is feasible and realistic.”
The restoration strategy also touched on a project being proposed in phase one, the PlaskettKeller Project, located in the Plaskett Meadows area, approximately 15 miles from Covelo and 36 miles from Willows. The project calls for hazard tree removal and fuel reduction treatments on 4,500 acres of the 15,500-acre area.
Emily Dolhansky, a forester with the Mendocino National Forest, cited the recent example of a large diameter tree that fell across Forest Highway 7 several weeks ago as a reason why they’re proposing the hazard tree removal portion of the project.
“There’s often a misconception that if a tree still has a full, nice crown after a fire then it doesn’t pose a threat,” Dolhansky said. “However, when we’re assessing hazardous trees, we account for injuries to the base that can sometimes be overlooked when we’re only focusing on the crown.”
Additionally, a discussion led by fuels specialist Frank Alves on fuels reduction, going hand in hand
with salvaging, noted that trees, “if left untreated, will detoriorate, fall to the forest floor creating heavy surface fuel loading. When this is combined with shrubbery growth, it increases the likelihood of yet another high-intensity fire where future vegetation regrowth would be reset yet again.”
Ann Carlson, Mendocino National Forest supervisor, concluded the meeting by talking about winter repair work that was done in portions of the forest over the winter.
“Our roads are in pretty bad shape, and we had a lot of dozer line and hand line that we needed to repair and then come in and do the BAER — burned area (emergency) response — repairs,” Carlson said. “So we have had equipment and crews on the fire area throughout the winter operating. And for the BAER
work, the only thing that stopped them from completing it was hitting snow. So we’re going to have to wait until thing melt until we complete that.”
Carlson also noted the work crews have done on landslides along roads, including the M1 road, but that, too is on hold while conditions dry out. Carlson suggested motorists carry a saw with them in case a tree or branch falls behind
them along a road so they can get back out.
“A lot of areas, as many of you know, don’t have good cell phone coverage, so you’ve got to be prepared to take care of yourself and work your way into the fire area to look around, but also to be able to get yourself safely out of there,” Carlson said.