After the Fires--the Big Job of Forest Rebuilding Begins

Against the black and gray backdrop of a forest ravaged by fire, wildlife biologist Tom Beck watched intently as the helicopter lifted from the Tarmac and veered toward the barren mountains with its load of grass seed.

The pilot’s mission was to aerially sow the seed over 2,475 acres of Jawbone Ridge in the Stanislaus National Forest, located near Yosemite National Park.

This human endeavor--frail by comparison with the destructive power of the 1,200 fires unleashed just weeks earlier by lightning bolts--was a helping hand in the natural rebirth of a forest, a first step toward restoring to a stark monochrome landscape the faint green hues of life.

“It all depends on the fall rains and temperatures,” said Beck, who is with the U.S. Forest Service.

If the first rains are gentle and if winter temperatures are mild, there is a good chance that the seeds of Blando brome, Lana vetch and yellow sweet clover will take root and minimize the inevitable erosion. This would ensure food for wintering herds of mule deer. The trout streams and the scenic Tuolumne River--with its stretches of white-water rapids--might be spared further choking sediments, which make it difficult for game fish to lay their eggs on gravel stream beds.

But if the storms are severe and the winter is hard, the seeds will wash away in a torrent of muddy destruction, and with them the hopes for an early restoration of the once verdant forest.

Forest Holocaust

From the Tehachapis to the Oregon border, California’s national forests are reeling from a holocaust that has raced through 774,000 acres in 17 national forests beginning Aug. 29. One of the fires, the 45,700-acre “Yellow fire” in the Klamath National Forest, is still not contained.

In all, 250,000 acres must be reseeded during the next five years throughout California, much of it in the Stanislaus, Klamath, Shasta-Trinity, Mendocino and Tahoe National Forests in Northern California. Without seeding, it is estimated that sedimentation in the Stanislaus forest alone would increase 20-fold and that water runoff would double. “I think that would be reasonably representative of other forests,” Stanislaus forest soil scientist Alex Janicki said.

Soil erosion is only one of several significant environmental problems posed by the greatest fire siege in California in 30 years.

In some areas, natural oils and waxes from plants and microorganisms in the soil were vaporized by the intense heat and driven several inches into the ground where they condensed and created what foresters call a “tin roof” effect. If heavy rains come, the “hydrophobic” soil will repel the water and add to flooding. But, a series of gentle showers would break down the tin roof effect and restore the soil’s absorbency.

The lightning-caused fires destroyed or damaged 50 of 500 habitat areas of the spotted owl--most of them in the Klamath National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service has placed the spotted owl on its sensitive species list.

A plant or animal species designated as “sensitive” means that while it is not officially considered threatened or endangered, the Forest Service is concerned, either because of the species’ decreasing numbers or because there are now or may be in the future fewer habitats in which the species can thrive.

The conflagration has ravaged wintering grounds for the mule deer, burned critical riparian habitats bordering 155 miles of streams and rivers where salmon and trout once abounded. In some stretches of water, including the Tuolumne River Canyon, the inferno was so intense that the streams boiled and root systems were incinerated.

“You’ll never get the magnitude of the situation until you fly over the whole thing. It looked like Dante’s Inferno,” said Dick Deleisseques, assistant regional forester for engineering.

In the aftermath of the great fires, the job of rebuilding the forests and salvaging 1.6 billion board feet of dead and dying timber--enough to build homes for a city the size of San Francisco--is beginning.

Two major tasks face the Forest Service. The first is to minimize erosion by reseeding the barren soil. The second is to salvage dead and dying trees in a way that will not further damage watersheds or adversely affect sensitive species like the spotted owl, Gos hawks and rare native plants.

The Forest Service has been hard-pressed to prepare the necessary environmental assessment reports before salvage operations can begin. Wildlife biologists, fisheries biologists, hydrologists, soil scientists and foresters are stretched thin. At the same time, the Forest Service headquarters in San Francisco has ordered the assessments turned out twice as fast because of the magnitude of the salvage operations.

The timber must be salvaged before bark beetles, which attack distressed trees, bore into the unburned heartwood and further degrade the wood’s value. Depending on the kind of tree, there may be no more than two to five years to carry out salvage operations.

Now the Big Jobs

“It’s got us pretty occupied. Putting the fire out was maybe the easiest part of it,” said Blaine Cornell, supervisor of the Stanislaus National Forest.

While environmental and economic priorities are balanced after every forest fire, the sheer magnitude of this year’s fire siege has focused more attention on the way the U.S. Forest Service and the state Department of Forestry are doing their jobs.

“Our national forest land has gone up in smoke. That’s going to change the face of our national forests,” said Patricia Schifferle, the Wilderness Society’s director for California and Nevada. She said that means that salvage operations must be more carefully considered than ever.

For example, salvaging is expected to require logging trucks to move into burned areas during periods of wet weather this winter and next. Heavy equipment operating on already denuded soil is expected to compound erosion problems.

Salvage operations involving the cutting of endangered green trees or the removal of barren dead trees called “snags” could be detrimental to spotted owls, which nest in snags.

However, Forest Service entomologist Bruce Roettgering said the insect danger to green trees will be minimal. “There will be bark beetles out there. But, they’re not going out and affect undamaged trees,” he said.

The observation could be a factor in sparing old-growth green trees located near the burn area from the saw. Old-growth trees, those at least 200 years old, are the habitat of the spotted owl, whose numbers were down to 1,300 pairs as of the last count in 1982.

“The spotted owl is considered to be an indicator species whose well-being reflects the health of that old-growth ecosystem,” said David Edelson, a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Our concern with the fires is that a significant amount of old-growth forest appears to have been burned and we want to ensure that the agency takes that into account before logging additional old-growth areas,” he said.

Increased in Logging

The salvage operations are expected to dramatically increase logging, and environmentalists have expressed concern that damaged trees that still have a chance to survive will be cut down with the rest.

Identifying such trees is complicated. It takes a trained eye. And this year, burned trees that might have survived after any other fire may not live because they were already stressed by drought.

“We want to make sure we’re not salvaging viable trees,” Beck said. “But it’s very difficult. There are a lot of judgment calls,” he said.

During each of the last three years, 1.6 billion board feet of lumber from the 18 national forests in the state was offered for sale. This year alone that figure is expected to be as high as 1.9 billion board feet, about 60% of it salvage lumber. Next year another 500 to 600 million board feet will be salvaged in addition to green tree sales, according to Ray Weinmann, assistant regional forester for timber management. Weinmann called the salvage operation ambitious in scope.

Nonetheless, the Forest Service has offered assurances that environmental laws will be followed. “We’re not going to use the fire as an excuse to shortcut the environmental assessment process,” Deleisseques said.

Before most salvage operations can begin the soil must be stabilized by reseeding and by “contour felling,” the positioning of fallen trees across slopes to hold back the soil.

Increasingly, however, questions are being raised by botanists and others over the wisdom of sowing non-native species like ryegrass.

While the Forest Service has long used ryegrass, chiefly because the seed is plentiful, costs only 30 cents a pound and grows fast, opponents argue that it will do no better job at erosion control than native plants. More important, they said, ryegrass crowds out native plants and inhibits their return.

Negative Effects

“There is a growing body of evidence from ecological studies that post-fire seeding with ryegrass suppresses or prevents regeneration of native plant communities, does not significantly reduce erosion, and in general is a waste of the taxpayers’ money,” said James D. Jokerst of the California Native Plant Society.

The society said that a storehouse of dormant native plant seeds remains safely hidden beneath the soil and awaits only the onset of rains to grow. Artificial seeding may be justified only in areas where the ground cover has been overrun by firefighting equipment or has been severely scorched by fire, the society said.

Whether native species do as good a job as ryegrass in controlling erosion remains to be seen, according to Forest Service ecologist Susan Conard, a co-author of an upcoming published review of past ryegrass studies. A better understanding of the effect of ryegrass on erosion and native species may result from a $750,000, 10-year study financed by the California Department of Forestry, she said.

But there is little argument that ryegrass dominates native plants. In particular, ryegrass is a nutrient-demanding species that draws nitrogen and other nutrients from the soil at a much greater rate than many native species.

During the last several years the Forest Service has reassessed its use of ryegrass. “We don’t use rye as freely and indiscriminately as we used to. Almost everybody involved in the operation has expressed reluctance to use ryegrass,” said Forest Service wildlife biologist Beck.

In the Stanislaus National Forest, for example, seeds from so-called “naturalized” grasses that originated overseas but were introduced in California many years ago were applied to 2,475 acres used by mule deer herds in the winter.

Different Mixture

Another 250 acres of riparian land that borders stream beds and rivers was sowed with a different mixture of naturalized seeds. The reason: Five species of native herbs on the “sensitive” list have been located in the burned riparian areas.

This mixture will be critically important to the survival of fish as well. Such vegetation provides shade and food for insects on which fish feed. It is estimated that 155 miles of streams and rivers throughout the state have been affected by the fire. During the fires, water temperatures climbed and killed fish on the spot. In the aftermath, water temperatures will remain higher than normal because there is no shade. The Forest Service said the productivity of some fisheries will be reduced by as much as 50% or more for up to five years.

Whatever steps are taken, the road to recovery will be a long one.

“In many places, areas will green up years before you see timber growing. Within a few years nature will start to take over. But, as far as timber, it’s going to be a long time before we’re back to total recovery,” Weinmann said. He added: “What we’re doing today many of us will not see the results of. But that’s a good land ethic.”

SEEDING THE BURNED NATIONAL FOREST Forest fires recently burned 137,211 acres of the 1,090,543-acre Stanislaus National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service is now reseeding parts of the burned area.

1. Ryegrass, an inexpensive seed, is an aggressive annual grass that grows rapidly for erosion control below 4,000 feet. It dies within five years, but competes with other plants and seedlings. If tree planting occurs before the grass dies, herbicides would most likely be used to kill the grass. Total acres: 34,460.

2. Perennial Mix: Used above 4,000 feet, it includes native grasses and “naturalized” grasses that originated overseas. It is used in erosion control and as a food source for deer. While not as competitive with native plants as ryegrass, this mix is more expensive. Herbicides would have to be used to clear areas before tree planting. Total acres: 6,240.

3. Tuolumne River Canyon: Native grass seeds--Blando brome and Zorro fescue--are used in the scenic areas to keep them as unchanged as possible. This mix is hard to find and expensive. Total acres: 4,670.

4. Riparian Mix: This combination of four perennial grasses is used in areas by streams and rivers to provide shade for fish and food for insects on which fish feed. These are “naturalized” grasses. Total acres: 250.

5. Winter Deer Range: A combination of Blando brome, yellow sweet clover and Lana vetch is used to provide food for mule deer during the winter. Total acres: 2,475.