Firing to start on 250 acres of prescribed burning at Big Trees
Ignitions on about 250 acres of prescribed burning in the North Grove of Giant Sequoias at Calaveras Big Trees State Park are expected to begin Sunday, a spokesperson for the park said Friday.
Live firing to begin the broadcast burning, when burn bosses commence with ignitions, is expected to last several days. The start of the planned prescribed burn was originally scheduled to begin Tuesday, and it was postponed due to snow that fell last Sunday night.
Planned prescribed burn treatments are expected to reduce fuels and reduce threats of more damaging, uncontrolled fires that could kill mature giant sequoias on about 250 acres in the North Grove area and along Highway 4, in Calaveras County, said Amber Sprock with Calaveras Big Trees State Park.
If weather, air quality or vegetation conditions are not right for burning or smoke dispersal, burn bosses will reschedule the prescribed burns.
Visitors should expect closures during the prescribed burning, Sprock said earlier this week. Closures due to burning could include the Grove Overlook Trail, a section of the North Grove Trail, a section of the River Canyon Trail, area fire roads, and Walter W. Smith Memorial Parkway.
Prescribed burns produce significantly less smoke than wildfires, Sprock said. Nevertheless, communities near Calaveras Big Trees State Park — including Arnold, Dorrington, Big Trees Village, White Pines, Blue Lake Springs and Love Creek — may see, smell, and/or receive smoke from burning operations.
The burns are being planned and coordinated with Calaveras and Tuolumne county air districts to try to minimize smoke in surrounding communities.
Protection and stewardship of giant sequoia groves in the North Fork Stanislaus River watersheds is supposed to have been a priority for California State Parks since Calaveras Big Trees State Park was established in 1931.
Prescribed burning is one of the tools used for vegetation management, to increase the resilience of the forest, and to promote new giant sequoia growth, state parks administrators
“They told us we should ask someone if we can park on their property for a while, but we don’t know anyone,” Deome said. “If we simply had, as the police here said repeatedly, a private property where we could park our vehicles, no one could do anything about it.”
Deome is now living in fear that he’ll encounter another law enforcement officer who won’t be as sympathetic and will have his only form of shelter towed.
When they first got out on the streets, Deome said he reached out to Calaveras County and the Amador-tuolumne Community Services Agency for help.
“We had no idea what we were doing,” he said. “We started calling government agencies after running out of money, and people said we should have called earlier when we first knew we were at risk of becoming homeless, but we’ve never been in this situation.”
In the meantime, Deome said he had to find a new home for his beloved dog, Bela, whom he’s owned for five-plus years, with the help of the Friends of the Animal Community.
“I just said I can’t force her to stay in this situation,” he said. “She
shouldn’t have to be punished for my situation. I’m just hoping she gets settled in and has a nice life.”
Deome and his sister were approved for housing a couple of weeks ago, though now they are just waiting for a place to open up. Deome said he was told by someone who works for the program that people have to exit before anyone new can get in because they are perpetually at capacity.
Deome said he’s never really been able to find a career that suited him and bounced around different jobs, from labor to even selling phones, which he
attributed to being a lifelong “extreme introvert.”
“My wife spent years trying to get me out of my shell,” he said. “I just never clicked with the way the world runs.”
Since becoming homeless, Deome has checked with people he knew in Redding for potential job opportunities.
Deome said he was told that a job would likely be available to him if he could find housing, though he doesn’t know how he can find anyone who will rent to him without first having a job.
After being unable to find any shelters or places they could legally park “from Twain Harte to Oakdale,” Deome said someone told him about a faithbased place in Modesto where they could go and stay outside if there’s no room inside.
They plan to go as soon as possible, but they can’t leave yet because his sister is currently seeing an oncologist in town and has an appointment on Monday.
“I’ve always looked at homeless people and thought, ‘Why aren’t they getting help?’ “he said. “It’s just crazy. We’ve all this money for sticking people in prison, but no money for getting people into housing.”
The county Commission on Homelessness was formed about a year ago and has been looking into the concept of managed, supervised outdoor shelter space for people like Deome who need somewhere to go while getting back on their feet.
A report released this week by one of the commission’s subcommittees identified three countyowned properties it recommended for such a shelter, which could house 30 to 50 people at a time temporarily until they could get into a more permanent situation.
Parcels were ranked in order of suitability based on a number of factors that were evaluated, including cost to the county, proximity to services, and security for both the residents living at the site and surrounding community.
The group found the most suitable location would be a 6-acre vacant parcel that’s property where the $150 million Law and Justice Center is currently located, followed by a 2-acre property near Table Mountain and 4-acre property near Pulpit Rock Road.
Dana Butow, of Sonora, is the vice-chair of the commission and led the study. She said the purpose was to provide a “very thorough and objective analysis” that would give the public the ability to participate, as opposed to being developed behind closed doors by county staff.
“We’re representing the public, various nonprofits, church groups and businesses that interact with and have been interacting with people experiencing homelessness for years,” she said. “It’s our way of trying to bring the public into the county’s process of putting this together.”
At a public meeting on Thursday, the commission ultimately approved sending the report to county staff for further study on how something like what’s proposed could be run properly.
The county Board of Supervisors is represented on the commission by District 1 Supervisors David Goldemberg and District 4 Supervisor Kathleen Haff.
Butnow said data was also presented at the meeting of the latest survey conducted in January of people who were homeless in the county at the time, which showed that people who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse issues were the minority of those who were unsheltered.
Deome and his sister would be ideal candidates for the outdoor shelter, Butnow said, noting that the idea is “not an original concept” and has been effectively utilized in other places throughout the U.S.
“It’s meant to be something that people move through,” she said. “It’s a place where people can be warm for a while as they get other things in order.”