Siskiyou National Forest Burn Crew Damages Trees with Prescribed Fire
10/23/97
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Headline: Siskiyou National Forest Burn Crew Damages Trees with Prescribed Fire
Source: Bobcat (Robert Brothers), Editor, FOREST NEWS
Headwaters Environmental Center
POB 729, 84 4th Street, Ashland, Oregon 97520
Main office phone 541-482-4459, fax 482-7282
WEBSITE http://www.headwaters.org
Personal office phone 541-482-7545
Date: 10/23/97
CONTACT: JULIE NORMAN, 541-482-4459
Siskiyou National Forest Burn Crew Damages More Big Trees with Prescribed
Fire in the Sugarloaf Timber Sale Area
Forest Service fire crews are lighting fires this week in the highly
controversial Sugarloaf Timber Sale area (Illinois Valley Ranger District,
Siskiyou NF) to get rid of logging slash left on the ground after
helicopter logging 10 million board foot of timber. The sale area lies in
an old-growth Forest Reserve and Roadless Area on the Siskiyou National
Forest's highest peak (Grayback Mountain). Despite citizen outcry about
the proposed burning methods and the threats to big trees, an eyewitness
has reported (see attached) that the fire crew she observed let flames burn
overnight in a big, healthy fir tree, burning clear through the base, which
will inevitably kill it. Other big firs and pines also burned for hours
due to nearby concentrations of logging slash.
The 1995 logging of the Sugarloaf Timber Sale removed over 11,000 trees
(including 1,000 giants over four feet in diameter), so big piles of slash
were left on the forest floor. There were also numerous trees in the
logging units that blew down the following winter, after being exposed to
the wind.
Headwaters members have been supportive of the Forest Service treating
this slash to take care of the increased fire hazard. But citizens have
strongly suggested that piles of logging slash around big trees be pulled
back before burning. Although assurances to that effect were made early on
by Forest Service fire staff at the Illinois Valley Ranger District,
citizens were later told there wasn't enough money to pre-treat the slash
before burning the units. The final Burn Plan authorizes one treatment
only: underburning across hundreds of acres under the remaining forest
canopy.
In the end citizens were told that the Forest Service decision was final
and could not be appealed.
The Forest Service's Burn Plan promised they would lay water hoses around
sensitive areas to control flare-ups, but the crews this week did not
employ this safeguard when they burned the Pine Grove.
Helen Violi, field scientist and author of the eyewitness report
(attached), stated, "The Illinois Valley Ranger District assured me during
public meetings that they would use specific precautionary techniques to
limit overstory tree mortality as they underburned sensitive areas, but I
did not observe these techniques being used."
Julie Norman, President of Headwaters stated, "People can go out and see
for themselves where big trees have been needlessly fire-damaged and killed
as part of the logging slash reduction. This example doesn't help us build
public support for prescribed burning, which we and the Forest Service
agree is important for the health of the forests."
MEMO
To: Headwaters
From: Helen Violi
Re: Observations of the Sugarloaf Post-Sale Burn, Siskiyou NF
Date: 10\22\97
Fire crews lit fires again today in Unit 2. Fire was run through both the
Owl Core Area and the Pine Grove, identified as high priority for protection.
The areas burned on Tuesday and Wednesday were greater than 30 acres. The
burn crew consisted of 15-20 people, as opposed to the 25-40 member crew
described in the Burn Plan
Smoke columns were light in color, and upward movement was relatively slow.
Gordon Foster (SNF Fire Officer) said that this was indicative of the high
moisture in the fuels being burned. However, there were some areas of
intense burning, which created rapid, upward, smoke movement and dense,
black smoke. The source of these smoke patterns was not able to be
confirmed at the time, but some of the crowded, young, stands and pitch
pockets may have produced these effects.
Duff consumption on the forest floor did not seem to be of special concern
within and surrounding the Pine Grove. Post-fire duff moisture seemed to
be 100% and under, and was observed to be consistently moist. Litter was
completely consumed within the burned pockets that I observed, and residual
ash was white. 1,000 hour fuels and up were often still burning within the
previous day's burn, as were some of the green trees and snags.
Unburned pockets existed where there was little slash, in sharp contrast to
the medium/high intensity burned areas.
What concerned me most about this burn was that I noticed that fuel loads
at the base of old growth trees were generally not treated before fires
were lit. A quarter of a side of one old growth Ponderosa Pine twin was
lightly treated by pulling slash away from the tree. Gordon Foster(SNF
Fire Officer) recommended to the Illinois Valley fire crew that fire be
kept away from the base of this tree because of the heavy slash
accumulation surrounding it. The lighting tech said that doing that would
interfere with the objective to kill the smaller diameter trees below.
Gordon Foster then recommended that fire crews ring the tree with fire and
allow it to back away from the tree, in order to reduce intense burning.
His suggestions to the crew were not taken, and the tree was significantly
damaged by the intense fire at the base if not killed.
One live old growth tree I observed had burned clear through the trunk, so
that it was possible to look through a gap over a foot wide at its base.
Gordon Foster advised me to stay clear of this one because it looked as
though it was going to come down at any moment.
Potential problem areas, such as tree trunks with lightning scars and heavy
with pitch, were not given any noticeable, special attention. The crew,
from what little I observed, simply lit the slash and watched it burn. As
I watched fire creep up to the base of one scarred Ponderosa Pine tree, one
of the crew made the comment "Hey, Helen, want to throw some dirt on that?"
and laughed. We watched fire work its' way around and up this tree for
over an hour. Flame lengths increased to about 30 meters up the tree. It
is my opinion that this tree was killed because of excessive heat to the
cambium layer.
I did not see a large portion of the burned area, but I did observe the
strategies used on the most important area of the unit to the Forest
Service. I saw no "piss pumps" (back-packs containing water), no hose lays
and no use of tools to control fire spread.
While viewing the previous day's burning upslope of the Pine Grove, Gordon
Foster (SNF Fire Officer), Tom Atzet (SNF Ecologist), and I heard intense
fire activity below. Charlie Phenix (SNF Fire Officer) assured me that the
intense burning that we heard in some areas was did not produce flame
lengths great enough to take out any of the overstory trees.
Tom Atzet commented that he had come to the conclusion that we needed more
money to manage these forests. I think this was in reaction to what we saw
during the day.
I could not get an overall estimate of how many of the overstory trees were
severely fire damaged at present. However, of the dozen trees I observed
closely, two were killed by fire, about half received some cambium kill,
and of that half, all were still burning when I left in the late afternoon.
I did not observe any evidence that mop-up was performed following the
previous day's burn. This was all in and around the Pine Grove, which was
to receive the lightest hand and the most attention of all the areas burned
within this plan.
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Bobcat (Robert Brothers), Editor, FOREST NEWS
Headwaters Environmental Center
POB 729, 84 4th Street, Ashland, Oregon 97520
Main office phone 541-482-4459, fax 482-7282
WEBSITE http://www.headwaters.org
Personal office phone 541-482-7545