There’s little solace for fire victims
There’s no way to temper the heartbreak from the scope of the homes, land and lives that wildfires vanquished this past week.
For a friend of mine, a research editor who lives in Santa Rosa, the month started when she lost her husband while he slept. While still grieving, she was told to evacuate her home. The fire incinerated house after house nearby, and as the week ended, stopped short of hers.
Several other friends watched as flames approached within visual range, in one case, “a ring of fire” in the home owned by John Koeberer, a member of the California Outdoors Hall of Fame. In each case, the fires turned and missed them. Except, that is, for one, a vineyard owner; house in flames.
If you haven’t faced a wildfire, it can be difficult to imagine the horrific fear and sense of desperation. Maybe if you were in the ’89 earthquake in the Bay Area and wondered if it would end, or in Yosemite Valley in ’95 during the rock slide at Washburn Point, or in a flood, tornado, hurricane or another natural disaster, you might have the inkling of the terror from an inferno chasing you down.
Most wildfires ignite from lightning in wildlands, and they can grow and eventually threaten structures and parks. In the Napa-Sonoma fires, however, the homes and parks went first. As for a defense, how do you stop multiple fires in one region that start in 90 minutes late at night, as was the case last Sunday?
The wind-whipped blazes moved so fast, with so many fronts out of control, that State Parks Director Lisa Mangat and her staff in Sacramento couldn’t track the fires in real time from reports on the ground or in the air, where smoke could block aerial surveys. “We don’t know the full extent of the damage yet,” said Jorge Moreno at headquarters.
The best, live-time information has come from a satellite camera operated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection using technology that shows a “Fire Detection Footprint.”
On Tuesday, for instance, the state parks department had the foresight to close Robert Louis Stevenson State Park even though no fires were burning inside its boundaries. This park is located along Highway 29 above Calistoga, with a trail to the west that leads to 4,342foot Mount St. Helena and another to Palisades, both of which tower over the Sonoma Valley.
By Wednesday morning, two swaths of fire burned part way up the slopes of the south flank of Mount St. Helena. By the afternoon, the two fires merged, and then pushed by upslope winds, climbed the south flank of the mountain and across the park. Even from a distance, it was frightful to watch, and you prayed nobody had tried to climb the mountain to see whether it was above the smoke for a view. By Wednesday evening, police evacuated Calistoga.
Four parks in the fire zone were closed: Trione-Annadel and Spring Lake east of Santa Rosa, Jack London near Glen Ellen, and Sugarloaf east of Kenwood and the Sonoma Valley.
With dry grass and vegetation, low humidity and wind, many parks are on fire alerts and subject to emergency closures. Rangers closed Mount Diablo State Park and the East Bay Regional Park District posted a warning for Extreme Fire Danger for 23 parks and Very High Fire Danger for 40 parks.
Short-term devastation
In the short term, wildfires in the Napa-Sonoma region can be devastating for deer. Vineyard operators often build deer-proof fencing to limit predation of their grapes. The result with a fast-moving fire is that deer can be trapped by fire on one side and run into a fence they can’t clear on the other.
In many wildfires, deer and other wildlife often have time to find escape routes. Birds fly to safe zones. Burrowing animals will go underground until the danger passes.
As the vegetation and ground-level browse is burned, that forces animals to flee to new areas to find food. That can create crowding, and with mountain-lion and bobcat populations high, deer kills are inevitable.
After the Rim Fire in fall of 2013 in Stanislaus National Forest, a lot of wildlife left the 400-square-mile burn area and appeared at rural schools to look for food. Some grazed on the playing fields. At times, mountain lions followed deer into the outskirts of towns.
Genesis effect
With such damage, any positive effects over the long term are of no consolation.
John Muir reveled in how fire was the trigger point for how the land is reborn over time, where everything starts anew. But at what cost does that come in the modern day?
Next spring, in the burn zones in wildland areas, there will be wildflower blooms, fresh mushrooms and truffles, and budding oaks and other trees. This renewed browse means plentiful new food sources for wildlife. Downed trees act as a home for insects and the start of food chains. In turn, good nutrition means high survival rates for next spring’s newborn and improved health for all wildlife.
A bigger question is the fate of the old-growth oaks, which provide acorns for food in the fall for wildlife. The big oaks often can live through a fire event, and when park biologists are able to assess their health, many who love wildlife will be interested in what they discover.
For the most part, there will be a lot less of everything for a few years in the fire zones.
The exception is the grassy foothills, which renew quickly in the spring with freshly sprouted grass often so bright we call it neon green.
In other areas, the hills of the Napa-Sonoma region often have been thick with brush and chaparral. That can block migration routes of wildlife and generally provide little food to increase the carrying capacity of a habitat. Burning it can clear migrations routes for wildlife.
For those who hate poison oak, the fires burn indiscriminately, and that means the bad goes, too. The poison oak will be gone in many areas.
There will be less vegetation absorbing water, and that means more water in the ground, and, in turn, the chance for springs to flow to the surface, some that haven’t pumped water for many years.
After the Mount Vision Fire in October 1995 at Point Reyes National Seashore, it took about 10 years for the flank of Inverness Ridge to regain its world-class beauty. That is no solace to anybody who lives in or loves the areas incinerated by fire in the past week.