Arson’s Toll on Forest: It Could Have Been Worse

Aswift, arid wind blows through V-shaped Coldwater Canyon in Cleveland National Forest, where firefighters finally fought back the fire that swept through the area in September.

At the base of the canyon, where Coldwater Creek flows, thick, green foliage becomes brittle and brown along a jagged line where the 2-week-old blaze was stopped after charring 7,100 acres.

An anonymous tip revealed that the fire, which injured 19 firefighters, was set by Robert E. Lowenberg, the 19-year-old son of Cypress Police Chief Ronald Lowenberg.

Today, Lowenberg is serving a three-year sentence at Latuna Federal Correctional Institution in El Paso, Tex., for arson. When he is released, he must pay the federal government $10,000 in restitution as part of his sentence.

Although the blaze seemed then to threaten one of California’s national forests, real damage to the 450,000-acre forest was surprisingly minimal.

“It was a little more vegetation removed than we would have liked to see,” said Bill Pedanick, National Forest Service spokesman. But, he said, much of the area had been earmarked to be burned by the Forest Service for regeneration of plants.

Only a small portion of old trees, 80- to 100-year-old pines and big cone spruce, were destroyed, Pedanick said. Very little reseeding was done because much of the area had been covered by chaparral, which will grow back naturally.

The fire even had some positive effects by burning out the old, dry vegetation and allowing new foliage to grow that is more succulent and nutritious for animals, Pedanick said.

Deer also seem to enjoy rolling around in the ash to repel insects, he said.

“There were a lot of positive aspects to it,” said Pedanick. “The negatives were not as great as they could have been.”

The negatives included the potential for mudslides that winter and the $2.7-million cost of fighting the blaze, Pedanick said. Some mudslides did occur on land near the Glen Ivy Hot Springs resort, forcing the owners to do extensive construction.

“All fire has its benefits,” Pedanick said. “The problem is when we have an unplanned ignition under summertime conditions, we’re not geared up to have people on the site at the time, therefore we have a real problem.”

And while the fire set by Lowenberg turned out to be less ecologically damaging than originally thought, Assistant U.S. Atty. Ronni McClaren, who prosecuted the case, said that that is not the point, and that Lowenberg should serve three years without parole. Lowenberg will have his first parole hearing in the spring of 1989.

“He didn’t light the fire in order to help the Forest Service take care of designated burning areas,” McClaren said. “I think it is going to be very costly; there was massive destruction.”

Lowenberg, who was an altar boy at St. Polycarp Catholic Church and a popular football player at Rancho Alamitos High School, is attending school in prison, counseling with a chaplain and working, his father said.

“Under the circumstances, he is trying to make the best of his institutional time,” the chief said.

Eventually, Lowenberg hopes to counsel teen-agers involved in drugs and alcohol, as he was, his father said.

There is still some question why Lowenberg started the fire. He testified in court that he and a friend went to the forest, drank beer and smoked marijuana, and ignited a trash bag full of leaves tied to a tree. After the bag fell from the tree, he thought the fire was out and left, he testified. On his way out of the forest, he set a bush on fire with a lighter.

Lowenberg never said why he did it, but McClaren said he “got drunk and high” and “didn’t care what happened.”