If you’re interested in how wildfires affect the ecology of a place, and in how we can manage post-burn landscapes in anticipation of future fires, here is an interview with Jamie Allen, a biologist working in Seiad Valley, in the Klamath Mountains. We talk about how the 2014 Happy Camp Complex Fires are affecting the current Blue Fire, which is burning toward Seiad.
Zeke and Jamie discussed the Blue Fire burning in Seiad Valley, California, which started from lightning strikes and is spreading through heavy fuels left on the ladscape following the 2014 Happy Camp Complex Fires. Those fires caused significant damage, with many large high severity burn areas experiencing 75-100% tree mortality. Jamie highlighted the importance of natural regeneration after fires, and the challenges of managing fires in a landscape with a history of fire suppression and the potential for future fires to exacerbate soil issues. The conversation emphasized the need for people to spend time on the ground in burned areas and the need to keep an open mind, as a resource management scientist, as the radical amounts of change we experience in our careers force us to constantly re-evaluate our assumptions about how natural ecosystems function.
Later in this livestream, we talk about the environmental destruction heaped on pot-growing epicenters like Post Mountain, in Trinity County, which had a fire going during this broadcast. We also looked at major spread on the Garnet Fire, and talked more about the need for incident management teams to communicate clearly with the public about the impossibility of containing some of our largest, most-destructive wildfires.
Lookout Livestream
AI-assisted Summary, Edited by Zeke
Introduction and Fire Overview
- Zeke Lunder introduces Jamie Allen as an “OG wildlife biologist living on the Klamath”, who will tell us about the Blue Fire burning in his backyard.
- Jamie Allen shares his background, including his upbringing in Seiad Valley and his professional career as a biologist.
- Jamie and Zeke reminisce about Jamie’s trail crew days with Zeke’s brother, Nils, and their experiences working together in the Marble Mountains in the 1990s.
Jamie Allen’s Professional Background
- Jamie Allen details his educational background, including his studies at Humboldt State University in natural resources and biology.
- Jamie discusses his professional career, including his role as a senior wildlife biologist and director of natural resources at Northern California Resource Center.
Fire Maps and Fire Severity
- Zeke and Jamie introduce the topic of wildfire severity – the ecological impacts of a fire (which can be extremely variable, and our often beneficial).
- Jamie Allen explains the 2014 Happy Camp Complex fire severity map, highlighting the high severity fire areas with high mortality rates.
- Much of the area burned in 2014 in this area was old growth forest, with enormous trees. Some of these were logged after the 2014 fire, but large logs and dead trees from 2014 provide a lot of fuel fore the Blue Fire.
- Jamie Allen describes the impact of the 2014 Happy Camp Complex fire on the landscape, including the burning of large timber and the resulting conditions on the ground.
- Jamie Allen explains some of the impacts of high-severity fire, including the sterilization of the “A horizon” of the soil, and the potential for soil hydrophobicity.
- Jamie explains the impact of burning of large, dead and down timber and the creation of ‘deep heat sinks’, which have major soil impacts.
Post-Fire Landscape and Regrowth
- Jamie highlights the benefits of the fire, such as the removal of brush and the potential for decomposition of large trees.
- Jamie shares photos of the post-fire landscape, including the PCT bridge over Grider Creek and the regrowth of basal sprouting trees.
- Zeke and Jamie discuss the ideal time interval for fire to return to a given landscape, considering the type of previous burn severity and factors like availability of seed sources for natural regeneration of conifers.
- Jamie explains the benefits of having a second fire char hardened snags and down logs, jump-starting the decomposition process and recycling trees back into the earth.
- Jamie highlights the importance of natural regeneration of conifers, and the need to leave seed trees on ridgetops when logging forests.
Salvage Logging and Fire Management
- Jamie discusses the impact of salvage logging on the fuel loading and the conditions after the project was done.
- Jamie explains the benefits and drawbacks of salvage logging, including the removal of saw logs and the byproduct of logging slash.
- Jamie shares his thoughts on the perfect outcome for fire management, including the importance of leaving seed trees and natural regeneration.
- Jamie highlights the ongoing learning process in fire management and the importance of collecting data and learning from mistakes.
Impact of Fire on Water Quality
- Zeke asks Jamie about the impact of fire on water quality, specifically mentioning current E. coli issues in Chico Creek.
- Jamie explains the potential increase in algal blooms and bacterial blooms in warmer watersheds post-fire, often aided by increases in water temperature. facilitated by the removal of canopy cover and the warming of the watershed. Jamie highlights the importance of monitoring water quality post-fire and the potential for beneficial and harmful microbes in the aquatic environment.
- Jamie says that the ideal water temperature for bacteria to thrive in streams is between 68-72 degrees, and streams which were colder than that before a fire can see major changes in bacteria if they suddenly begin to have that post-fire water temperature range.
Fire Behavior and Resource Allocation
- Zeke Lunder discusses the impact of the lightning storm on fire behavior and resource allocation in Northern California.
- Zeke explains the challenges of managing multiple fires with limited resources and the importance of prioritizing critical areas.
- Zeke highlights the need for better fire management strategies, including the use of prescribed fires and fuel reduction efforts.
- Zeke emphasizes the importance of transparency in fire management and the need for realistic expectations in fire containment.
New Fire in (Com)Post Mountain. Cannabis Industry’s Disastrous Impact on the Planet.
The Cedar Fire burned yesterday in Post Mountain, SW of Hayfork, California.
Timelapse of development of Post Mountain area, near Hayfork, California.
- Zeke shows webcam video of the Cedar Fire, burning on Post Mountain, in Trinity County, which is a massive outdoor marijuana growing hub.
- Zeke confesses he is a judgemental asshole, and launches into a diatribe about why he hates this place more than any other on the planet.
- Zeke has very personal negative feelings about marijuana cultivation, associating it with negative impacts in his own life and the lives of many people he knows.
- The Post Mountain area was heavily logged before the 1990s and then subdivided. During the medical marijuana boom of the early 2010s, these parcels were extensively developed for marijuana cultivation, leading to extensive cannabis farming that clear-cut and terraced the land, which has been extremely environmentally destructive.
- He criticizes the Coutny’s decision to allow subdivision of this community in the first place, due to the fact that the area is extremely fire-prone due to it’s midslope location on the south side of a mountain, in fire country. He notes that this has happened all over the place, and few jurisdictions have said no, anywhere, to developing places like this.
- Zeke says this area has ‘bad fire karma’, due to it’s naturally high-hazard location, its blatant disrespect for the land, nature, society, and fire, itself.
- He points out that the landscape is now full of leftover debris, plastic, old trailers, and other hazards, making it dangerous for firefighters who have to respond to fires there, as they must work in the toxic smoke of burning garbage, without respiratory protection.
- Overall, he sees the area as an example of the worst land use and development practices, combining environmental harm, fire risk, and social dysfunction.