Photo_Running from the fire.
In the wake of the Arizona’s Wallow fire, and the implication that the White Mountain Stewardship program saved hundreds of houses (Bostwick, P. et al 2011), an individual involved in the ’05 Gregory Fire, located on a south aspect overlooking Idaho City has to wonder what could have happened, if the local Stewardship program would have been completed at the time of ignition.
The crew had just rolled in from Cedar City, Utah. The plume rising over the northern horizon was deceiving. Deceiving in that one would expect it, but the plume was actually rising over the northeastern horizon. Setting in the parking area of Boise’s National Interagency Fire Center, we watched the plume as it rose to touch the underside of what appeared an upper Stratosphere. If the column leant slightly this way or that it couldn’t be ascertained. It just rose and rose and rose, to the general senses of direction up into the sky.
Idaho City always appeared to be more east from NIFC. Looking on the map a person could see the south eastern path taken along highway 21 that turned almost directly north from Lucky Peak Lake, where they trained in repelling, to continue on to Idaho City.
Playing in the roll Fire Marshal Bill, the usual comedian tried to liven-the-crew-up, with a banter that really never landed solid as a factual concept until years later.
“Huttu….” He sneezed. Dried the inside of his front lip so it would stick to his teeth and present a funny look as he spoke--like the Jim Carey character he attempted to imitate. “When you see a big plume like that… ha-ha-ha-haw, you’re really seeing a giant smoke factory.” Bill’s attempt to lighten the mood didn’t necessarily fail, but it didn’t have its usual response, because the fire burning in the forest was expected to burn right through Idaho City. A forest with unit management prescriptions, and fuel treatment programs that had been in place and underway, at that point, for several years.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-haw,” Bill spit through his teeth, “The fire-the fire-It’s going to burn Idaho City Down.”
The township and range calculations told us it was burning through a unit that had been treated early that spring, north of the residential area. The slash and burn piles were still on the ground and awaited that fall or the next spring’s wet months when they were usually burnt. Since the fuels were still on the ground, they presented areas where once ignited they would create a hotter environment. It’s a matter of physics; and, with the hundreds of logs scattered across the ground, and most of the fine fuels stacked into igloo shaped piles, all that was needed was a lightning storm and the modified condition class was ready to create potentially hazardous fire situations. That, as a matter of speaking was what was occurring.
The fire, once ignited spread from the ignition source through the browning igloo piles of limbs and twigs, where it gained momentum and climbed up into the tree tops. It over-crowned and went directly down the hillside toward Idaho City. In the areas where the fine fuels were still piled or lopped and scattered, the result was a stand replacing situation. The areas that had been treated in previous years with the subsequent fine fuels already having been burnt, directed the fire down through the channel. It amassed a central intensity that carried, as the plume dominated in minute wind-speeds with a downhill spotting effect.
Given its orders the crew turned off into the skirting residential outskirts of Idaho City around dark. The implication of strategy was to create a fire break on an area of land that was directly adjacent to the community. Dozers had successfully plowed lines to the north and the south. Between these lines there were several hundred feet of topography unlined due to the steepness of, in what appeared, old grown-over mining digs. After the crew, cut and dug a fire-break that connected the two dozer lines, we went on monitoring status for what seemed like the next 24 hours.
The fire, denied the fine fuel igloo stacks of tree limbs and twigs that had been consumed higher up on the mountain side, had not lain down in the ravine. The formerly treated and burned areas closer to the heart of town had calmed the blaze. Yet in the untreated ravine, it was coming right down the hillside. In a plume dominated situation as was the case, hot embers falling out of the plume caused the fire to slowly back itself down the hill. When it reached the dozer and connecting line though, it burned right up to the mineral soil in places and was contained. Later the people who owned the house close by were even patrolling the line.
Low intensity fire, usually in low altitudes through Ponderosa stands do not typically create stand replacement effects as is the case in the upper altitude fir dominated fire fuels. The ability for some species to recover after a fire is phenomenal. Treatments aimed toward removing surface, ladder fuels, and tree-to-tree space density fuels are proposed to work (Franklin & Agee 2003, FRCC 2005).
It seems that for cohesion to function fire strategy management, policy management, and land management should focus policy discussions on how to prevent forest fires, while attempting to discover new technologies that will make pre-mitigation of fire potential cost effective, and profitable.
“Because only you,” Bill did his best Smokey Bear imitation, “Can prevent forest fires.”
With the understanding of the wild, as has evolved in recent years, it’s not about trying to prevent forest fires; it’s about trying to stop them from burning more area than they should, or by attempting to alter stand replacement disturbances.
The Fire Regime Condition Class theory breaks the natural aspect of regimes down into five classes. Franklin and Agee (2003) believe that this theory must accommodate more classes to satisfy overall diversity of the land. However, at a local level it doesn’t appear that there needs be more classes but fewer, as Steven Arno claims. Conclusive evidence shows that there are only two types of fire: stand replacing, and stand altering. Nevertheless, deduction says that stands of the same composition can potentially burn to produce results from both fire types. In other words, a single incident can present stand replacing behavior in some areas, and stand altering in other areas, regardless of whether it occurs in Ponderosa, or in fir. Which ultimately was the final result of the Gregory.
Looking over the record, agencies have defined three different Fire Regime Condition Classes, or three different topographies with a varying range of departure from a natural state. We also have two highly skilled specialists, (Franklin & Agee 2003) stating there needs be more fire regimes. While an old vetran of the forest believes there should only be three regimes. National Parks and Protected Forests. The Wildland. The Urban/Wildland Interface.
As to all of this and fuel treatments: the canopy is one indicant of fuel mosaic. It’s a mass tangle in places. It’s spacious in others, and this just on flat ground. Add vertical abatements and cool mountain ravines then there is another set of understandings. That, though not part of the three Fire Regime Conditions Classes, are to some degree factions, or factors of these three senior classes.
The FRCC overview mentions “Strata” as tangible effects included in the three major classes. Yet, this “Strata” has not been scientifically described, nor has it been atypically identified. This is something Franklin & Agee believe to be within their grasp (2003). While agency hierarchy feels it will weigh the topics down within intangibilities.
After Bill went through his “Jim Carry” charade, in the parking lot at NIFC, we all laughed quaffing something or another to add to the jest, while trying to lighten the mood. But it wasn’t until years later that I finally understood the truthfulness of his, at the time, incoherent comedian antics said. A fire is in fact a smoke factory! The particulate emissions aren’t much different in chemical composition from those spewing out of a coal fired smoke stack at an electric mill. The only major difference is mankind can harness the energy in an electric mill. To date however, no one has been able to trap the energy release of a wildfire and its raging smoke factory just rises into the atmosphere.
References
Franklin, J. and Agee, J. 2003. Forging a science-based national forest fire policy. Issues in Science and Techniology, Fall 2003. pp. 1-8.
Barrett, S.; Havlina, D.; Jones, J.; Hann, W.; Frame, C.; Hamilton, D.; Schon, K.; Demeo, T.; Hutter, L.; and Menakis, J. 2010. Interagency Fire Regime Condition Class Guidebook. Version 3.0 [Homepage of the Interagency Fire Regime Condition Class website, USDA Forest Service, US Department of the Interior, and The Nature Conservancy]. [Online], Available: www.frcc.gov.
Bostwick, P. Menakis, J. Sexton, T. 2011. How fuel treatments saved homes from the 2011 Wallow fire. Fire Research Management and Exchange System. Website. U.S. Forest Service.
