II. Background - The Wildfire Threat in El Dorado County

El Dorado County has a Mediterranean type climate which features hot, dry summers and cool moist winters. The June - October dry season produces ideal conditions for wildfires. Annual plants die and perennial plants lose moisture and become highly flammable. Fires burning toward the end of the dry season are intense, resist suppression efforts and threaten lives, property and resources. Drought conditions intensify the wildfire danger. Two additional climatic conditions aggravate this already serious wildfire problem. Periodically, almost every year, the Pacific High Pressure System moves eastward over California and brings very hot, dry weather with low humidity. This "Heat Wave" can occur at any time during the dry season and wildfires can start easily and are difficult to extinguish. The other extreme weather condition, thankfully less frequent, usually occurs in the fall and sometimes in early winter, when north or east strong, dry winds subside from the Great Basin High (Foehn Winds). Under these conditions, a wildfire can quickly escape and create great damage before the winds stop blowing. The Oakland Hills Fire of 1991, which destroyed 3810 homes, burned under these conditions.

Each year, hundreds of homes are destroyed or damaged by wildland fires. El Dorado County is no exception from wildfire losses. In 1985 the Eight Mile Fire destroyed 14 homes and in 1992 The Cleveland Fire destroyed over 40 homes and claimed the lives of two aircraft pilots. People who live in, or plan to move into, an area where homes are intermixed with brush, grass, woodlands or forests may be in jeopardy and their lives may be at risk. Nobody may remember the last wildfire in any given area in the County, but history and tree ring analyses tell us that sooner or later, wildfires will occur. Few who have lived through a wildfire maintain their pre-fire attitudes. Those who have not been through a fire cannot imagine such an experience and are more or less convinced that it will not happen to them. Unfortunately, the control of wildfires is not an exact science. A wildfire responds to the weather, topography, and fuels in its environment. Under extreme burning conditions, the behavior of a wildfire can be so powerful and unpredictable that fire protection agencies can only wait until conditions moderate before suppression actions can be taken.

To best understand the history of wildland fire in the Sierras, it is necessary to look at presettlement fire regimes. The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, Volume 1, Assessment Summaries, 1996, Wildland Resource Report No. 36 - UC Davis, page 62, "Management Strategies" states the following:

"Ecological Functions of Fire. Fire is a natural evolutionary force that has influenced Sierran ecosystems for millennia, influencing biodiversity, plant reproduction, vegetation development, insect outbreak and disease cycles, wildlife habitat relationships, soil functions and nutrient cycling, gene flow, selection, and, ultimately, sustainability."

"Climatic variation plays an important role in influencing the patterns and severity; fires have been most extensive in periods of dry years."

"In most lower-elevation oak woodland and conifer forest types of the Sierra Nevada, presettlement fires were frequent, collectively covered large areas, burned for months at a time and, although primarily low to moderate in intensity, exhibited complex patterns of severity."

"Fire suppression in concert with changing land-use practices has dramatically changed the fire regimes of the Sierra Nevada and thereby altered ecological structures and functions in Sierran plant communities."

"ASSESSMENT: Fire represents both one of the greatest threats and one of the strongest allies in efforts to protect and sustain human and natural resources in the Sierra Nevada. Residents and visitors alike are well aware of the threats posed by summer wildfires. A growing density of homes and other structures coupled with the increased amount and continuity of fuels resulting from twentieth-century fire suppression have heightened concern about threats to life and property, as well as the health and long-term sustainability of forests, watersheds, and other natural resources. Yet fire has been an integral part of the Sierra Nevada for millennia, influencing the characteristics of ecosystems and landscapes. Today, state, federal, and local agencies put enormous resources into efforts to reduce fire occurrence while at the same time advocating the need to use fire to promote healthy ecosystems. The challenge we face is how to restore some aspects of a more natural fire regime while at the same time minimizing the threat wildfire poses to human and natural resources and values."

The Forty-Niners carried the early perception that the nation's forests and wild lands were obstacles to agriculture and settlement in California. For more than half a century following the Gold Rush, settlers, miners, stockmen and others used El Dorado County rather harshly. Often land was abused through indiscriminate burning. Fires were deliberately set for a variety of purposes often raging out of control. The prevailing attitude regarding wildfires, however, was to save lives and protect property and let the wild lands take care of themselves. Wildfires continued in El Dorado County and elsewhere in the state until damages exceeded tolerable limits. This led to the establishment of the precursor of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) in 1881 and the State Board of Forestry in1885, following the establishment of the Federal Timber Reserves (now the National Forests) and the U. S. Forest Service in 1905.

As more people relocated into the Sierra Nevada foothills in the twentieth century, the landscape began to change to accommodate more people and groupings of people into population areas. The pictures on the following page, while not taken in El Dorado County, do illustrate these changes.
 

80 Years of Change in a Ponderosa Pine Forest

1909		1948
1958		1979
		1989