Your post needed more cowbell.
Posted on 10/12/2008 11:52:19 PM PDT by LibWhacker
(10-12) 23:25 PDT Angel Island -- A fast-moving brush fire atop Angel Island shot flames high in to the air and glowed so brightly Sunday night that it could be seen for miles around the San Francisco Bay by residents in several counties.
"We are seeing a silhouette of the island in flames," said Jacqueline McCrath, who was watching the fire from Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. "It's been spreading really fast -- we saw a vigorous blaze at the top of the hill at first, and now it has spread across a lot of the island. It appeared very suddenly -- the first thing we saw was a blazing hilltop."
Residents in San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda Counties - from the hills in Berkeley, Oakland and El Cerrito to the shorelines along Richmond, Marin and San Francisco described the fire as spectacular and massive.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Your post needed more cowbell.
The island was a tinderbox back in the mid 1990’s. Hope they use this as a time to eradicate the imported eucalyptus trees off the island.
I got a stunning view of it from my San Francisco rooftop, about 3 blocks from the Bay.
Obamaites already rioting?
Lol, thanks. Pretty spectacular!
Hate those damned things. I used to live in the Bay Area and one of them fell on me once... well, fell on the truck I was driving. Tore the whole back end off the truck. If it had fallen a second or two earlier, it would've come in the cab, and that would've been the end of me!
I don’t know how many ukes may still be there. A few years ago hundreds were felled and then barged to Japan, I think, to be pulped and turned into some sort of wall board.
Good, I hope they git rid of all the ones in Burlingame, and up on Sweeny Ridge in San Bruno.
Thats a lot of tree to fall on you, its all trunk until way up high.
Damn, El Camino Real just wouldn't be the same without those trees lining the road on both sides. You're talking some real sacrilege there. Keep it up and we'll tar and feather you and put you on the first Cal-Trans bus to San Mateo.
D. C. Burgess, BHS class of 1976
...tree hugger....;)
LOL, well dammit, I’d hate to see El Camino real naked.... it would be... indecent. I’m not really a tree hugger, just kind of prudish about naked streets.
Plant some tall oaks or something then! Not that Aussie import stuff!
I hafta agree with you there.Those bloody gum trees are a royal pain in the ass,they constantly drop leaves,bark,sap and other assorted sticky crap.They're always covered in ants,provide very limited shade for their size and they are prone to drop 4 ton limbs on your house when they get thirsty.
I hafta agree with you there.Those bloody gum trees are a royal pain in the ass,they constantly drop leaves,bark,sap and other assorted sticky crap.They're always covered in ants,provide very limited shade for their size and they are prone to drop 4 ton limbs on your house when they get thirsty.
No kidding, a man in Madison died driving down the street when a tree simply fell over on him. Thank God you are alive!
must be a database glitch
I understand and wouldn’t want to see the ‘tree lined boulevard’ disappear either. Glad you caught the joke.
When I lived in SSF I had a corner lot. I had a ‘bottle brush’ hedge along 2 sides which included the corner. I used to tell the neighbors, who complained about it when I got slack on trimming it, that I agreed with them and should just cut it down and plant eucalyptus trees instead. That was one way to get their kids over to help with the trimming...;)
Isn’t there a herd of deer on the Island? I think there was a over population of the varmints and the usual crowd opposed thinning them out...
Thats what this country will look like if Dumbo gets in!!!!
That’s what Mt. Tamalpais is gonna look like unless they start doing controlled burns.
I guess nobody learned anything from the Oakland Hills fire.
I remember the deer overpopulation controversy on Angel Island. The bambi people wanted to administer birth control to the deer, at a horrendous cost. I guess we got roast venison now.
We just sailed over to AI last Sunday. Wow, what a loss.
Eucalyptus is a fire-adapted species; it spreads its seed on the draft of a fire, sometimes as far as a mile. The stumps re-sprout, seed in the duff germinates, and it proceeds toward monoculture.
Cut them down and poison the stumps.
I have been doing habitat restoration to native plants for eighteen years. I removed it all from our property early on. Some of those trees were incredibly dangerous to drop; big spring-loaded, and slippery. It takes a cat with a big winch and a climber (me).
There are places where Eucalyptus is just fine. There are varieties that aren't terribly messy and make a beautiful street tree (as long as you've got a cherry picker with a good reach). It's also a great fuel wood.
In one respect they are very handy: nothing grows under them, including other exotic weeds. In a way, they have served me well as a barrier to other infestations.
I've got a neighbor with a five acre stand. I've been trying to talk him into about getting rid of for at least a decade. I'd like to convert it to redwood. The problem is finding a customer for the logs. They are really heavy and take massive equipment to move. In steep terrain, it is hard to do without making a mess of the slope.
I have been doing habitat restoration to native plants for eighteen years. I removed it all from our property early on. Some of those trees were incredibly dangerous to drop; big spring-loaded, and slippery. It takes a cat with a big winch and a climber (me).
There are places where Eucalyptus is just fine. There are varieties that aren't terribly messy and make a beautiful street tree (as long as you've got a cherry picker with a good reach). It's also a great fuel wood.
In one respect they are very handy: nothing grows under them, including other exotic weeds. In a way, they have served me well as a barrier to other infestations.
I've got a neighbor with a five acre stand. I've been trying to talk him into about getting rid of for at least a decade. I'd like to convert it to redwood. The problem is finding a customer for the logs. They are really heavy and take massive equipment to move. In steep terrain, it is hard to do without making a mess of the slope.
But, but, but, what about all the cute Kola (sp?) bears that live in those trees?
Driving El Camino Real during a storm was always an adventure. Those huge trees bending in the wind. . . scary.
I have been doing habitat restoration to native plants for eighteen years. I removed it all from our property early on. Some of those trees were incredibly dangerous to drop; big spring-loaded, and slippery. It takes a cat with a big winch and a climber (me).
There are places where Eucalyptus is just fine. There are varieties that aren't terribly messy and make a beautiful street tree (as long as you've got a cherry picker with a good reach). It's also a great fuel wood.
In one respect they are very handy: nothing grows under them, including other exotic weeds. In a way, they have served me well as a barrier to other infestations.
I've got a neighbor with a five acre stand. I've been trying to talk him into about getting rid of for at least a decade. I'd like to convert it to redwood. The problem is finding a customer for the logs. They are really heavy and take massive equipment to move. In steep terrain, it is hard to do without making a mess of the slope.
Part of San Francisco, the place where every immoral act is worshipped, is on FIRE?
Why, you could knock me over with a feather!
Eucalyptus trees have naturalized in California and are as much a part of the horticultural identity as any plant. There are whole plant/animal relationships going on with this tree, if they were removed, would drastically change the state and the other plants and animals that live here.
Removing Eucalyptus trees doesn’t necessarily eliminate fire danger anyway. Plants found in the state, pre-Spanish settlements were just as combustible. California has always been known as the land of earthquakes and wildfires.
Prudent stewardship of California’s land would eliminate much of the fire problems we are having today, but the unscientific ‘ecology’ movement is what has put California in such poor shape we are having this massive problem with wildfires.
Eucalyptus trees have naturalized in California and are as much a part of the horticultural identity as any plant. There are whole plant/animal relationships going on with this tree, if they were removed, would drastically change the state and the other plants and animals that live here.
Removing Eucalyptus trees doesn’t necessarily eliminate fire danger anyway. Plants found in the state, pre-Spanish settlements were just as combustible. California has always been known as the land of earthquakes and wildfires.
Prudent stewardship of California’s land would eliminate much of the fire problems we are having today, but the unscientific ‘ecology’ movement is what has put California in such poor shape we are having this massive problem with wildfires.
I was driving a visiting Aussie around Los Angeles when we spotted some and he "corrected" me.....
"No, no Bazza...those are GUM trees, mate!"
Can’t really scream at the island to turn off the light, can ya?
does anyone live there? if not they should let it burn..
I bet roast Koala over a eucalyptus fire might be pretty good ;)
When I saw that FR was locked up, I left the thread.
Not many people live there...I think a couple hundred might. It's mostly people taking the ferry over for day tripping, biking, or camping. I was there a month ago. It was an old military base and served as the disembarking station for US soldiers heading off to the Pacific theater in WWII. I sat outside the old barracks and thought about all the men that passed thru there waiting to go and how many of them never returned. It was pretty eerie and a little sad, as this may have been the last place in the United States many of these soldiers ever saw.
Thanks! I wonder how many people die that way every year? I’ll bet it’s quite a few.
In my case, it happened during heavy rain. Eucalyptus trees have shallow roots and this sucker was real old (dead, in fact) and on a steep hillside. Just as I got abreast of it, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and then, BANG!
What I really loved about it was that a lady came running out of a house across the street and told me that she had been calling the city (San Bruno) about it for weeks telling them it was about to come down and they did nothing.
Whew, definitely one of my closest calls!
Sounds to me as if the City of San Bruno owes you a new truck as just restitution for their inattention to what could have been a deadly issue.
I was on the job at the time. So it was a company truck, an 18-foot, high-cube bobtail. Man, you should’ve seen the look on everyone’s face when I drove half a truck into the yard!
Yes, I always thought the company or its insurer should’ve sued the city. Heck, I should’ve sued, too, for all the ribbing I got for it! ;-)
People should be ashamed of themselves. Now if they had any of those g.d. Cypress or Mesquites in their neighborhood they'd have something to pi$$ and moan about.
TODAY: The Angel Island park officials say the fire is 75 percent contained. It has burned about 380/400 acres.
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