The wildfires on Cow Mountain and near Rodman Slough on Saturday left more than a few Lake County residents a little anxious.
Saturday”s 400-acre Cow Mountain fire started near the same spot that the 26,000-acre wildfire started in 1981. That fire roared all the way across Cow Mountain, went down into Scotts Valley and nearly ended up in Lakeport. That fire, which destroyed 35 structures, has special meaning for me as my son as we were temporarily trapped in it.
The 1981 fire started on Aug. 9, which was the opening of the Zone A deer season. We were camped and hunting near the radio tower on North Cow Mountain. The temperature was 104 degrees that day and I turned on the radio to get a weather report. Instead, I heard a special report that advised anyone who was on Cow Mountain to immediately leave because there was a wildfire in the area. We jumped into my International Scout and headed out of the area. A federal ranger stopped us and said to follow him off the mountain and not to stop. We stayed right on his tail and drove through a wall of fire, which scorched the paint off my Scout. Two days later that fire had burned to the outskirts of Lakeport.
Living in Lake County I am always concerned about wildfires. Every morning when I wake up I gaze at beautiful Mount Konocti. But what I see, in addition to the splendor of the mountain itself, are miles of dry brush and just below that brush hundreds of homes. If a wildfire ever got out of control on the mountain it would sweep down on many homes and cause massive loss of property and life. With the new county park now open on Mount Konocti I worry that a careless hiker smoking a cigarette will start a massive fire. There is a “no smoking” rule for all who visit the park but there are always those few individuals who will smoke regardless of the regulation.
Lake County has experienced several major wildfires in the past 25 years. The largest was back in 1996 when the Forks Fire burned more than 83,000 acres. It started outside of Upper Lake and burned all the way to Indian Valley Reservoir. Luckily no homes were destroyed but for a time it was feared that it would swing toward Clear Lake and burn Nice and Lucerne.
The Cow Mountain Recreation Area, located just outside Lakeport, contains more than 50,000 acres of dry brush. In fact, the brush is so thick through much of the area that a person can”t even walk in it. Since the 1981 fire a number of homes have been built in the hills bordering Cow Mountain. A fire would probably destroy many of these homes and could even cost lives. The answer to this dilemma is simple … do more control burning. Every year the governmental agencies talk about control burning on Cow Mountain but very little is ever done as the brush keeps growing.
Fifty years ago ranchers routinely burned the mountain during the winter months. In fact, Cow Mountain was the site of control burns annually and not only did the burning provide excellent habitat for wildlife, but it also protected the homes in Scotts Valley.
There is no question that much of the county needs to be controlled burned to prevent major wildfires. We often hear the term “control burning” but a lot of people don”t know what it entails. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the California Division of Forestry (CDF) or the U.S. Forest Service carries out just about all control burns.
The purpose of control burning is to burn old brush and create new habitat for wildlife and to prevent the spread of fires by creating burned corridors that keep a fire from spreading. Most control burns take place during the fall and winter months when the chance of the fire spreading is at a minimum.
In addition to control burning, county residents have to clear away the brush and dead grass on their property. A drive around the county will reveal hundreds of acres where the dead grass is waist high.
Some of the wildfires are the result of lightning but most are human-caused. For example, many fires start alongside roads and highways because people toss cigarette butts out their car windows. In fact, many of the new cars don”t even come equipped with ashtrays.
Recently on my daily walk along Martin Street and Riggs Road (outside of Lakeport) I counted more than 50 discarded cigarette butts in a stretch of three miles, and this was through very dry country. Any one of these butts could have started a major fire.
Wildfires can cost millions of dollars to extinguish, but a few pennies of prevention and a little common sense will go a long way to prevent a disaster.
