Resurgent Tahoe fire ignites chaos, panic

InsideBayArea ^ | 06-27-07

[jazusamo]

Thanks for that run down on the area, I know what you’re saying.

As a teenager I worked in a cafe as a dishwasher on the North Shore in the summer of ‘57. Got to know some year round residents and what a place to live it was then.

My wife’s folks lived in Carson City in the 70’ and 80’s and had friends that lived a little north of So Lake Tahoe. A huge change took place in those years and not for the good.

[Carry_Okie]

This is to say nothing of the PC disaster unionized wildland firefighting has become.

Crisis on our National Forests: Reducing the Threat of Catastrophic Wildfire [San Bernardino Fires]

Time to repost an oldie but a goody, lest we forget who's principally responsible for this mess.

Sierra Club Conservation Policies

Fire Management on Public Lands - Conservation Policies

Sierra Club Policies Main

	Articles of Incorporation
	Bylaws and Standing Rules
	Purposes and Goals
	Conservation Policies

Sierra Club Conservation Policies

Fire Management on Public Lands

1. Fire is a natural, integral, and valuable component of many ecosystems. Fire management must be a part of the management of public lands. Areas managed for their natural values often benefit from recurring wildfires and may be harmed by a policy of fire suppression. Long-term suppression of small wildfires may build up conditions making occasional catastrophic conflagrations inevitable.

2. Every fire should be monitored. Naturally occurring fires should be allowed to burn in areas where periodic burns are considered beneficial and where they can be expected to burn out before becoming catastrophic. Human-caused fires in such areas should be allowed to burn or be controlled on a case-by-case basis.

3. In areas where fire would pose an unreasonable threat to property, human life or important biological communities, efforts should be made to reduce dangerous fuel accumulations through a program of planned ignitions. New human developments should be discouraged in areas of high fire risk.

4. When fires do occur that pose an unacceptable threat to property or human life, prompt efforts should be undertaken of fire control.

5. In areas included in or proposed for the National Wilderness Preservation System, fires should be managed primarily by the forces of nature. Minimal exceptions to this provision may occur where these areas contain ecosystems altered by previous fire suppression, or where they are too small or too close to human habitation to permit the ideal of natural fire regimes. Limited planned ignitions should be a management option only in those areas where there are dangerous fuel accumulations, with a resultant threat of catastrophic fires, or where they are needed to restore the natural ecosystem.

6. Land managers should prepare comprehensive fire management plans. These plans should consider the role of natural fire, balancing the ecological benefits of wildfire against its potential threats to natural resources, to watersheds, and to significant scenic and recreational values of wildlands.

7. Methods used to control or prevent fires are often more damaging to the land than fire. Fire control plans must implement minimum-impact fire suppression techniques appropriate to the specific area.

8. Steps should be taken to rehabilitate damage caused by fighting fires. Land managers should rely on natural revegetation in parks, designated or proposed wilderness areas, and other protected lands. Where artificial revegetation is needed, a mixture of appropriate native species suited to the site should be used.

9. The occurrence of a fire does not justify salvage logging or road building in areas that are otherwise inappropriate for timber harvesting. Salvage logging is not permitted in designated wilderness areas or National Park System units.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, March 17-19, 1989

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5 posted on 10/26/2003 5:54:04 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to be managed by politics.)

[Carry_Okie]

Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.

The following photos from the Rodeo/Chediski Fire are entirely analogous to the situation in the San Bernardino Mountains Lake Tahoe.

Do you want this,

Or this

This is Apache land. The two photos were taken the same day and both burned. Note the charring on the lower branches of some of the trees in the second photo foreground.

The answer is forestry, multiple use, and the responsibility that goes with private control. The Forest Service serves too many masters, and gets a bigger budget as long as they fail.

6 posted on 10/26/2003 6:05:17 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to be managed by politics.)

[Carry_Okie]

The following photos from the Rodeo/Chediski Fire are entirely analogous to the situation in the San Bernardino Mountains Lake Tahoe.

[george76]

Thanks.

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Time to repost an oldie but a goody, lest we forget who’s principally responsible for this mess.

Sierra Club

[george76]

This is what Grand County, Vail in Eagle County, Summit County... look like now.

Just waiting for a spark.

They have many homes at risk.

[Carry_Okie]

This is what Grand County, Vail in Eagle County, Summit County... look like now.

Spindly, twisted, crappy trees packed so close together it produces a monoculture, dries up streams, and eventually destroys watersheds.

Yup. That's the policy. Eight years of Bush has done NOTHING to make it any better.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for those reposts.

Too many people forget about what damage these Eco terrorists have done in the past two decades with their love of fire.

[george76]

And many historic roads have been closed and many more miles are proposed to be closed by BLM and USFS under this current president.

As we know, this will make fire response slower and much more dangerous for the fire fighters.

[Carry_Okie]

A Burning Desire, A Critique of the Sierra Club Public Lands Fire Management Policy (1999)

[Carry_Okie]

As we know, this will make fire response slower and much more dangerous for the fire fighters.

You might want to read that article on the Winter Fire. Wildland firefighters ain't what they used to be.

[radiohead]

I’m sure they’ll be coming after him.

Jeez. I understand what you mean, but what the heck kind of country have we become that "I’m sure they’ll be coming after him.' is not a surprising response? We've started to sound like Nazi Germany or Russia.

[EX52D]

bttt

[BlazingArizona]

Hoards of tiny wimpy organic metrosexuals bedecked in floppy hats, birkenstocks and fanny packs migrated from the bay area and socal to make new laws, put the forests off limits, protect the beaches, ration the use of private land and otherwise degrade the quality of life above 6,000 feet.

We get metrosexuals in parts of Arizona. We used to be able to spray for them, but chlordane has now been banned also.

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

Winds are still calm.

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

Evacuation orders remain in effect for two neighborhoods in a south Lake Tahoe community because after the wildfire that has burned 3,100 acres jumped Highway 89 Tuesday afternoon.

Gov. Schwarzenegger and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons will tour the fire-stricken region today. A news conference is scheduled for noon. News10 will air it live. It will be streamed live on news10.net.

In the Gardner Mountain area, about 400 residents from the following streets are now under a voluntary evacuation order:

13th Street

Gardner Street

Taylor Way

Panther Street

Julie Lane

Clement Street

Roger Avenue

Shady Lane

Tata Lane

Highway 89 is closed between Highway 50 and Emerald Bay.

Tallac Village is located near South Lake Tahoe, where the fire has already damaged or destroyed an estimated 200 homes and 75 other structures.

What had been just a thin line of hazy white smoke turned dark and dense as the fire flared up a little after 2 p.m. Tuesday. The blaze jumped the fire line not far from where the three-day old fire began, near the south end of the lake. Tuesday evening the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for the Tahoe area through 9 p.m. Wednesday and extended a fire weather watch through Thursday night.

In the Tahoe Keys area, people on West Way and Lukins Way have been told to leave. Venice Drive and 15th Street are under voluntary evacuation, as is the Camp Richardson area.

One woman who hastily loaded her SUV only had time to say “Pray for us” as she fled.

As a precaution, Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe moved residents from their skilled nursing facility to other Nevada facilities. The hospital is not under an evacuation order. The nursing home patient transfer is precautionary

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

June 27, 2007

Update 8:47 a.m.: Another evacuation center opens
A third American Red Cross evacuation shelter has been set up at Incline High School, 499 Village Blvd. The other shelters are at Carson High School, 1111 N. Saliman Road and at the Lake Tahoe Recreation Center, phone: (530) 542-1556. Call the Red Cross at (775) 856-1000.

A hotline has been set up for residents to find out if they can return to their homes. Call (530) 621-5866. The last report from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department hotline is that mandatory evacuations remain in effect for those living in the Gardner Mountain subdivisions from Lake Tahoe Boulevard north to Gardner Street including Highway 89; Highway 89 from 15th St. north; and Upper Truckee Road from Wintoon north and Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Voluntary evacuations include: Tahoe Island, Highway 50 north to 15th street and east of Highway 89 and Tahoe Keys area.

*****

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

Web Cams

http://www.tahoe360.com/flashmaps2/webcams.php

http://www.virtualtahoe.com/Cam.html

http://www.virtualtahoe.com/framesets/diamondpeak_cam_set.html

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

Although stronger winds today are expected to cause problems for firefighters battling the Angora wildfire near South Lake Tahoe, Stanford University officials say that the university’s campground near Fallen Leaf Lake appears safe.

The Stanford Sierra Camp was evacuated after the fire broke out nearby Sunday afternoon. People who had been at the camp were evacuated, while a small group of staff stayed to protect the camp from fire danger. The staff members were to take motorboats out onto Fallen Leaf Lake if the fire veered back toward the camp again.

The road to the camp is still closed, according to Amy Paulson, senior director of business and membership for the Stanford Alumni Association. Power and telephone service to the camp were restored Tuesday morning.

The Angora fire has burnt 3,100 acres as of this morning, destroying 178 homes and 50 other buildings. The blaze is 45 percent contained. Fire officials hope for complete containment by Sunday.

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Fire officials have changed the contained date to July 3rd,
as of the latest briefing.

[NVDave]

You’re spot-on with your figures.

What people must, simply must, remember about “defensible space” is that the flame front of a wind-whipped fire needs a firebreak at least twice as wide as the flames are high.

So if you have trees around your home — you need a heck of a space. 100’ is a good start.

I’m sure people will be trying to sue the TRPA and so on. I’m also sure that since they’re in Kahl-ee-fornia, they won’t win.