Angora fire restoration draws complaints

A prescribed forest burn in the Angora fire area caused quite a stir earlier this month after wind gusts of up to 50 mph carried some of the burn slash piles and brush further than what was comfortable for nearby homeowners.
The U.S. Forest Service, however, says that at no point did the prescribed fire, which consisted mostly of slash piles and dead trees, get out of hand and the agency remains both cautious about its undertaking and empathetic to nearby neighbors who rebuilt their homes following the June 2007 Angora fire.
"There's no way in hell they had a handle on this fire," said Coyote Ridge resident Norm Strobel, describing what he saw on Nov. 2. "I watched this thing move 500 yards up the hill in less than an hour. Had it not been for a change in the wind direction, it would have taken off."

Strobel, who lost his home to the Angora fire and rebuilt, described the situation he and his neighbors witnessed as irresponsible and "ass backwards," noting that prescribed burns should not be lit when gusty winds are in the forecast. Wind gusts of 30 miles an hour can carry embers for at least a mile, he said, and those embers can touch off catastrophic fires.

"What I can tell you is this: The fire was moving faster than they could have controlled it. The only line of defense was Angora Ridge Road. There's no access, no water source. If the wind hadn't moderated and changed we would have been in a world of hurt," he said.

An injunction to halt fuel reduction work in the Angora Fire area was denied last July after a lawsuit was filed by two environmental organizations. The thinning and removal of trees in half of the 3,100 acres that
burned in June 2007 is designed to prompt regrowth of burned trees and significantly cut the threat of future fires, according to the Forest Service.

The work is designed to control harmful invasive plant species, improve the road and trail system, and requires mechanical and hand-thinning of dead and some live trees to reduce the future risk of wildfire and improve forest health. Planning and design for stream channels and wetland and meadow restoration projects continues, and some field work will begin next summer.

The Forest Service stands firm on the Nov. 2 burn, and said that what Strobel and others witnessed — wind gusts that carried the fire — was indeed anticipated and planned for from the get-go as well as the snowfall the following two days. Burning under windy conditions is, for the most part, good for controlled operations because the smoke disperses instead of remaining in a single area, said Forest Service spokeswoman Cheva Heck. Also, windy conditions allow materials in the slash piles to burn more evenly.

"It is good if it is part of the right mix of conditions and we believe the right conditions were in place the days we burned," said Heck. "We are always looking for some wind to carry the smoke away and the piles to burn more completely."

She said the Forest Service looks for three things the Forest Service when conducting prescribed burns: Will there be enough wind to carry the smoke; is there precipitation in the forecast to dovetail with the burn; and has the burn been sufficiently planned. Before a prescribed burn is implemented, personnel is in place to full execute the operation. They look at things like wind speed and direction and plan accordingly. The best kind of burn day is breezy with known wind directions so that the piles can burn over completely, she said.

"We appreciate the response from people and their heightened awareness. We want to assure them that a prescribed fire is a different beast and all precautions have been and are taken during the fires," Heck said.

While the prescribed burns were eventually snuffed out by the weather systems that arrived, Strobel remains unconvinced the Forest Service had control of the situation.
"You can't tell me that they had a handle on it because no one could have stopped if it had taken off. The Forest Service got lucky. Plain and simple luck because the fire was moving faster than the conditions allowed for in a prescribed burn, which are suspect enough as it is," said Strobel. "My question to the Forest Service is: Would they have allowed a burn permit to happen on a day like that? Of course not. Not with gusts of 50 mph."

Fire restoration project a mess, resident says
Meanwhile, at least one trail user is more than a little upset over slash pile and thinning operations along the Valley View trail inside the burn area. Hiking up the trail recently, Carla Ennis said she was appalled by the condition of the logging salvage area, saying it looked like a bomb went off in the middle of the forest.

"Parts of the trail are absolutely, utterly and completely destroyed," Ennis said. "These are trails that everyone uses. They went through them like they didn't even care." Ruts left by heavy machinery, multiple slash piles along
the trails and mounds of dirt and dust are unacceptable, Ennis said, and the Forest Service must take responsibility for restoration.

The Forest Service maintains the work being done in the area is along decommissioned, user-created trials only. A number of unauthorized trails make up the Valley View trail system. Over the years, users and mountain bikers have created several trails off of the main trailheads, and those trails are not maintained by the Forest Service. Trail work along Valley View will begin next year on two main Forest Service arteries, and the agency is considering adopting some of the user-created trails in the process. But nothing firm has been determined about which trails would be adopted.

"We're looking at a number of things along these trails. If you look at the system now it is a spaghetti network of trails, some of which have erosion problems associated with them," Heck explained. "We are looking carefully at these trails. Water quality and erosion control are the main drivers in our determination of what we build into the system."