Concludium, Part I: Big Meadow Fire of 2009
- September 12th, 2009
- Posted in Uncategorized
- By Edie
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The Big Meadow Fire will continue to smolder and perhaps there will be a few visible flames until the first good rains of fall or winter, but at this point the greatest damage is done and the majority of the fire is out–for a given value of “out”.
Big Oak Flat road was the site of another fire in 1990; I’ve heard both “A-Rock Fire” and “Foresta fire” used to describe it. 19 years worth of new growth is utterly gone above the road. It is a barren, burned out wasteland. I have not had any firsthand experience with mudslides, but that hill worries me. In its denuded state, there is nothing holding what soil there is in place. There are large boulders exposed on the hillside above and below the road. Many of the old standing snags are gone.
Below the road isn’t much better. Skeletons of manzanita brush remain, and pine snags dot the slope. Boulders are strewn across the hillside like an improbable game of marbles played on a glacial scale. I keep thinking they should be rolling down hill, flicked forward from the knuckle of an ice giant. OK, enough with the bad metaphors.
There’s been a lot of comments from employees about the stupidity of setting a prescribed burn in August. There’s speculation that Mr. Uberuaga’s head will roll, that he will never hold another supervisor’s position, that this will end his career. Time will tell.
When asked if anyone will be held accountable, Mr. Uberuaga stated:
“In the National Park Service, prescribed fires plans are reviewed and approved by multiple individuals and then authorized by the Superintendent or his/her representative. Any escaped prescribed fire requires a review once the fire is extinguished. The review will include independent, knowledgeable fire professionals and will produce findings. Based upon those findings, the agency may take further actions including those that might affect responsible officials.”
(Source: “A Note From Yosemite’s Superintendent”, Inciweb)
I’ll be waiting for that report to be released, and will try to provide access to it here.
The NPS Fire Service has done one thing that really looks bad in my eyes. Within a few days a video of the start of the fire was posted to YouTube, but was taken down within a day. That smacks of suppression of information. Granted, I don’t know if the video was what it was purported to be–it could have been some schmuck trying to up his views by posting a bogus clip. On the other hand it might have been the genuine article, and it may have implicated the fire crew in some way. I don’t think we will ever know. The video is gone, and won’t be coming back, nor will we ever know who posted it nor why, nor what it contained.
One thing I have determined; The prescribed burn was intended to clear the Big Meadow, and the majority of the defined area is unburned. In an Incident Action Plan, drawn up prior to igniting the burn, is a rather poor satellite image of the area intended to burn, totaling 91 acres. It is the last page of the PDF. When compared to the Final Fire Perimeter Map, using “Old Coulterville Road” as verification, it’s clear that the meadow was not burned. Final verification are the images I have taken since the Big Oak Flat Road re-opened showing the golden grasses unscorched.
Thanks for always being available and willing to search out the real truth. I rarely believe what “the news” reports (not just as it applies to Yosemite but as a general statement of all “news”) as there is always butt-covering and personal and political agendas that taint the truth. But I know you will report it as you see it and I appreciate that. I love Yosemite and it’s good to know there’s someone on the “inside” who isn’t afraid to expose the truth.
Edie, while my information is even less complete than yours I’m beginning to develop some opinions about what I think this may mean. In no particular order:
1. After driving through the fire zone along 120 to Tioga Pass I still think that up there the effect of the fire will be potentially beneficial – it seems like the desired managed burn effect of clearing much accumulate undergrowth but not killing the large, older trees. However…
2. I’m very concerned – and even more so after reading your description – about the fact that this fire may have set back the recovery from the terribly damaging 1990 fire by two decades. As you know, that fire (the results of which we’ve seen along Big Oak Flat Road and sections of Tioga Pass Road for nearly two decades now) was terribly destructive, burning completely through old growth forest and destroying it. In fact, it was an example of the need for managed fires rather than complete fire suppression. However, 20 years of very slow recovery in that area may now have been wiped out… but the park service itself. This is a very serious matter.
3. For the life of me, I cannot image _setting_ a management fire in the park in August. (I do understand the policy of managing naturally-started fires.) Yes, there had been some previous precipitation, but let’s consider the downsides: the area is tremendously dry from a multi-year drought; the park is open and busy during this peak visitor season; there is plenty of opportunity (and the NPS knows this) to do this sort of fire in late September or early October as the winter storms approach.
After coming to terms with the initial destruction from the earlier fire that grew out of the Foresta area and burned across Big Oak Flat road and up to Tioga Pass Road, I had come to accept and even appreciate watching the slow but (I thought) certain recovery process as I returned each year. Your description of what has happened along Big Oak Flat road depresses me.
Dan