As summer approaches, the constant worry in Lake County is fire. The county has all the ingredients for a major wildland fire, including old trees, high grass and weeds.
Make no mistake about it, wildfires are part of living in Lake County. A series of devastating blazes in 2015, 2016 and 2017 show that much of Lake County is a tinderbox waiting to explode. The big fear is that this summer will be a repeat of the last three.
While lightning causes some fires, humans start most of them. For example, many fires start along roads and highways because people toss cigarettes out their car windows. In fact, many of today’s new cars aren’t even equipped with ashtrays. On a recent walk along Martin Street and Riggs Road (just 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 of these butts could have started a major fire.
There are several preventative measures that can hold the fire danger to a minimum. One is the cut the dry grass and weeds that are common throughout the county. I am amazed as I drive around the county the number of properties that have dry weeds right up to the homes. There are county and city ordinances that require grass to be mowed but it’s not enforced. All the local government agencies have to do is warn the property owner and require that high grass be mowed by a certain date or the government agency will hire a contractor to do it and charge the property owner. That seems so simple but is seldom done.
The other solution is to do control burning on the public land in the county. The Cow Mountain Area just outside Lakeport is a good example. The 50,000-acre area is nothing more than a dry brush patch waiting to burn.
We often hear the term “control burning” but a lot of people don’t know what it entails. BLM, the California Division Of Forestry (CDF) and the U.S. Forest Service conduct almost all of the control burning in the state. The purpose is to burn old brush and create new habitat for wildlife and to prevent wildfires by creating burn corridors that will contain a wildfire. Most of the control burns takes place during the fall and winter months when the chance of the fire spreading is minimal.
The actual act of control burning is a simple affair. The managers of the forest lay out an area to be burned and a helicopter flies over the area. The helicopter is rigged with a barrel containing a flammable jelly-like substance suspended by a cable. The jelly is set afire and the helicopter drags the cable over the brush, setting it afire. Most control burns are laid out in a mosaic pattern, leaving cover for wildlife.
The cost to control burn is a pittance in comparison to cost of fighting a major wildfire.
Why hasn’t control burning been done to protect the residences in the county and provide habitat for wildlife? The answer is simple. The government agencies responsible for control burning can’t agree on when or even how to do it. Just the process of getting an agreement on when to burn is a mind-boggling matter. First there has to be permission from Air Quality Control because of the smog the control burn will cause. Then funding has to obtained to conduct the burn. Whereas money can always be found to put out a wildfire, there is often little available to do control burning. Coordinating the burn with CDF also must be accomplished. There is also the fear of liability if the control burn turns into a wildfire. All this results in a very small window when control burning can be done.
The only certainty is that if we don’t do control burning, then nature will do it for us, and at a much greater cost. It’s the old story of pay a little now or pay much more later.
Fishing
The Bassmaster Carhartt College Western Tour starts Wednesday and runs through Friday. The tournament features college students from throughout the United States and operates out of the Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina in Lakeport. The weigh-ins start at 2 p.m. each day. The tournament is expected to draw more than 100 boats.
