Fire Thoughts

I am probably not going to make any friends over these musings.     First I do not judge anyone individually.    We need to be safe and keep our animals and property as safe as possible.    

Clearing our land is the worst thing we can do for the earth and animals.  Fire is a normal part of the circle of life.    Fire is Mother Nature’s cleansing process.  It is a necessary evil to ensure the balance of life is maintained.    

Habitat destruction is the #1 cause of animal and plant extinction.  What is animal habitat?  It is the twigs and leaves, it is the rocks and dirt, it is the mighty oaks and annoying cat tails.    It is the muddy part of your property that drives you crazy, it is the dead tree in a pasture, it is the dense forest of shrubs and brush at your neighbors, it is the tallest redwood to the tiniest weed.   In the midst of the deadliest fires in California history I am getting FB posts saying do not rake your leaves and why.   There are very important reasons why not.  The beautiful Redwood only grows in a small place in the West, the California and Oregon coast.   The litter under the redwoods is vital to their survival.   I have grown up with and currently live with the mighty oaks.    They are sensitive to man, not fire and not Mother Nature, they are sensitive to man.   Building around them and disturbing their ecosystem is a fast or slow death.  Disturbing their system is as simple as raking leaves away from them.   When you notice something wrong with the oak in your yard it is too late, they die slow.    When you notice something wrong in nature it is also usually too late.    

There was a time when we were successful in putting out every fire quickly and efficiently.  I remember hearing how this was bad because fuel on the forest floors was building up because it was not allowed to burn.    I remember a time when there was not a home every 1-5 acres and fire fighters were not stretched so thin.  They were successful with fires around cities and when fires were too much to handle they were allowed to burn thru an area because there was few to no humans or buildings.    Only a small handful of homes were destroyed, if that.   No one died…..   no one died…..

I don’t remember a time when the Great California Valley flooded every year, but it did, every year.   California’s central valley was like the great Serengeti in Africa.   It was a treasure like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon.   Humans, in the name of Manifest Destiny, could not wait to make deep water channels and re-route water.    California has been drying up ever since.   Our entire state is drying up.   Why we continue to send water from Nor Cal to desert areas (sorry friends down south)  to water lawns and fill pools of the rich astounds me.    One of the last years of our drought I drove south and the giant reservoir on the grapevine was full.     Our water was keeping it full to the top while our reservoirs were down to the lowest they had been in history.    We only need water to drink, for toilets, and bathing (maybe an ice cube or two).    Our gardens and yards should all be native.    Plants native to one’s area do not require extra water except in the first year to become established. 

Now we are talking about more land clearing as if this is the answer.    It really isn’t.   We need to re-hydrate and stop building homes every acre.   Our beautiful California is becoming a desert.   By putting homes and people on every square acre in the state we are spreading fire fighters too thin.  By putting homes every square acre in California we are destroying animal habitat.    By not allowing fires to run their course in the past we have created a perfect storm for what we are seeing now.   By re-routing every ounce of water so we can put people in homes in the desert so they can grow lawns, have pools and import European and Island species of plants to make lush gardens we are drying up our home.   

I don’t rake leave because the trees need their litter for nutrients and the little animals need it for survival.  

I don’t remove a dead tree on my property because it is animal habitat.   When it falls it stays there.  

I create burn piles and I do not let them sit for months and then burn out all the animals who moved in over that time.   I leave them for the birds and animals.   I let them decompose naturally. 

I do not remove the 2 acres of cat tails covering a large shallow pond on my property to make a big beautiful pond because those cat tails are a home to a host of creatures that are part of what makes my place beautiful.  
There are approximately 10 homes where I live which is an area that could have 200 five acre homes.  That does not account for 1-3 acre parcels which would increase the population and the degree of difficulty in fighting fires.    

Oh and PGE needs everything to go underground.