Search Results for: rim fire

Deconstructing Rim Fire Retardant Use

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The Forest Service has posted its 2013 aerial fire retardant statistics. Over 12 million gallons dropped, a 50% increase over last decade’s average annual amount (page 220 of the Forest Service’s aerial retardant FEIS summarizes use for the 2000-2010 decade). As usual, Region 5 (California) led the nation, accounting for over 7 million gallons. And … Read more

Rim Fire Terrain Effects

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Below is a picture of the Tuolumne River and Poopenaut Valley, just a mile or so below Hetch Hetchy’s O’Shaughnessy Dam. As you can see, the area burned rather lightly. What might be the reason for this area to survive, almost unscathed? I think there is a “micro-climate” at play, here. Most of this is … Read more

Burn Intensity in the Rim Fire

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I ventured into the Rim Fire, where access is (still) very limited, and found a variety of conditions. Along Evergreen Road, on the way into the Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite National Park, I first saw an area that had a prescribed burn accomplished, a few years ago. A “windshield survey” of that saw that … Read more

Rim fire salvage logging wins support?

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Modesto Bee article today: Rim fire salvage logging wins support. “Several environmental groups pledged Tuesday to support the salvage logging proposed for parts of the Rim fire area. “They joined timber industry and other leaders in Tuolumne County in a letter urging the U.S. Forest Service to approve the logging, which is proposed for about … Read more

Balanced Post-fire Treatments in the Rim Fire

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I ran across this excellent article from  Eric Holst, Senior Director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s “working lands program”. Here’s the link: https://www.edf.org/blog/2014/02/18/after-rim-fire-surprising-role-salvage-logging This picture is a view looking down into the Tuolumne River Canyon, from the “Rim of the World” overlook. Down there is where the fire started. I’d bet the spin on this wildfire would … Read more

Rim Fire trees sailing to China, domestic mills “pretty much at capacity”

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From Reed Fujii, staff writer with the The Record, Stockton, California: If there’s a silver lining to last year’s Rim Fire, California’s third-largest recorded wildfire, scorching more than 257,000 acres around and in Yosemite National Park, it may be in the piles of logs now being stacked up at the Port of Stockton. MDI Forest Products, … Read more

Rim Fire Billion Board Feet Salvage Bill

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This is also from the current American Forest Resource Council newsletter and brings into play Larry’s earlier objections to the “billion board feet” statement (which most people can’t visualize anyway): Yosemite Rim Fire Salvage Bill On October 3, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation held a hearing on H.R. 3188, … Read more

The Rim Fire: Who Could See This Coming?

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California environmentalists, logging industry lock horns over burned trees Published October 12, 2013 The Wall Street Journal FILE 2013: A doe deer returns to its home range along the Cherry Lake Road in the Rim Fire area near Yosemite National Park. (AP Photo/U.S. Forest Service) Well, this was predictable. Unfortunately. Trust DeFazio to be involved … Read more

Why We Need to Salvage and Replant the Rim Fire

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Greg asked why we should bother with salvage logging on the Rim Fire, and I tried to explain how bear clover would dominate landscapes. He also seemed confused about modern salvage projects, here in California. Everything, here in California, is fuels-driven, as wildfires happen up to 13 times per century, in some places in the … Read more