Fire Is Out, Troubles Smolder

To Whom It May Concern:

As a contributing member of society, a political conservative, a farmer and a woman, I would like to say “Thank you, thanks a lot” to the person who caused the fire in Hopper Canyon. Because of you . . .

* The cattle are lowing and Ann is awake. They are hungry. Their pasture is burned. Their owners are now eligible for our government/taxpayer dollars to feed them until the land recovers.

* About 24,800 acres of land stink. Black, charred land has an offensive odor. It pollutes the air I breathe.

* Prime, lush, organic, honey-producing sage, wild California buckwheat, hollyberry, wild alfalfa, blue curl, dove weed and other nectar-producing acres are at least four years from recovering. I like honey. I am a beekeeper. You have impacted my livelihood and the livelihood of several other contributing members of the local economy in a negative way.

* Bezillion wild birds, squirrels, possum, raccoons, lizards, skunks, foxes, bobcats, cougars, bears, coyotes, yellow jackets, arroyo toads and snakes lost their homes. They cannot live on black, charred, moon-like surfaces. They can come in closer to the civilized areas looking for shelter and nourishment. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service tries to protect them in real life.

But this week the U.S. Forest Service, which assumed jurisdiction of this fire, had other rules once the bureaucratic roadblocks were cleared by your created emergency. Their rules include backfiring from Piru Canyon Road, a line more than a mile east from the original flames and 8 miles in length. They had a “nice safe fire with great conditions for burning.”

Those nice safe conditions (including low temperatures, fog and high humidity) were also putting out the original fire. But the backfires wouldn’t allow that. A public relations officer for the U.S. Forest Service said that Ventura County Fire Department likes to go in close and put out the fire, that they like to stay back and make a nice large round line around the fire.

They were successful. The burned and destroyed area is large. My eye estimates that more than half of the acres were burned by backfire. Some of these acres were burned in another natural brush fire less than a year ago. The rest of the backfire area is land that they have been wanting to burn for at least 10 years. Because of environmental and budget cutbacks, they were blocked from that goal until your fire began that day.

Nearly 6 million government/taxpayer (my) dollars have been spent by the firefighting agencies putting out your fire and their own backfires. We pay. The rest of us. The ones who were not careless or intent with fire.

For a solid week, we have smelled, heard and seen a lot of your fire. We are sick of it.

So, whoever you are, congratulations. You helped us out of a beautiful wilderness area and government money that could have been used in a more positive way.

This letter sounds jaded and sour grapes. You’re right. That’s the way I feel. My stomach churns, reflecting my emotion. Emotion caused by the reality of this fire, here, in my backyard, this week. It’s 2:30 a.m. and the cattle are lowing and Ann is awake.