Wrightwood Is Warned of Fire Threat

A hard spring snow fell on the mountain town of Wrightwood on Saturday as area residents gathered to contemplate the coming fire season.

Federal land managers were on hand to deliver a sobering message at a town meeting: If trees and brush aren’t thinned from Wrightwood and its perimeter, the hamlet in the northern San Gabriel Mountains will eventually succumb to wildfire. If not this fall, then perhaps the next.

“Fire is here to stay, whether or not you like it,” said Cid Morgan, the district ranger for the Angeles National Forest. “You have three choices: adapt, migrate or die. As long as you do your part, we’ll do our part.” Even with the inclement weather, memories of the Santa Ana wind-driven blazes of October were still fresh.

The flames threatened to make a run at Wrightwood. Nearly all the Forest Service officials on hand worked the blazes, which killed a total of 26 people throughout the Southland, destroyed more than 3,600 homes, burned 750,000 acres and damaged key wildlife habitat.

Yet, only about 30 local people showed up for the meeting at Wrightwood’s community hall, where empty seats outnumbered filled ones.

“I thought this place would be swamped,” said Valerie Martin, 53, a town resident. “I think this is pitiful. It’s beyond pitiful; it’s disgraceful.”

Wrightwood sits at the bottom of the Swarthout Valley, at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The slopes surrounding the town of 3,800 are draped in thick chaparral and dense stands of pine, much of which hasn’t burned in years because of past fire suppression efforts.

An insect called the bark beetle has weakened or helped kill many Jeffrey pines in the area. A different type of bark beetle has wreaked similar havoc in the San Bernardino Mountains, leaving behind tons of highly combustible dead trees around Lake Arrowhead.

One Forest Service map highlighted the dangers to Wrightwood. The map showed that flames from a fire in the area would probably reach heights of 12 feet or more. If that should happen, said agency officials, firefighters would probably have to get out of the way.

Because most of the land surrounding Wrightwood is owned by the Forest Service, agency officials want to treat vegetation in the area with a combination of logging, brush clearance and prescribed burns. Thousands of trees could fall.

The plan is to virtually encircle the town with firebreaks on the ridges above it and to create a safe escape route by scraping brush away from the side of Big Pines Highway, one of two ways in or out of town.

Most of the residents praised the Forest Service’s plan and said they would support it, although questions were raised about noise from logging and the possibility that off-highway vehicle enthusiasts might ride illegally in cleared areas.

“This is probably the most important thing for the community in the last 100 years,” John Bauer, president of the Wrightwood Fire Safe Council, told the audience. “We don’t want to hold up the process. If we have to put up with noise or smoke, it’s worth it in the long run.”

Morgan said funding had come through for some work. The plan comprises three projects, each of which requires its own funding and environmental review. Officials said brush clearance in the highest-priority area, Lone Pine Canyon, would begin this year, though long-term efforts to remove trees directly above town might not start until 2005 or beyond.

The cumulative costs of the work will probably be in the millions, with some of the money coming from President Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative.

“Overall I think the plan sounds great,” said Michael Charnofsky, 35, of Wrightwood. “It sounds like the Forest Service is looking at a good balance between a healthy forest and community safety.”

Wrightwood, though, has still another problem: Majestic pines are crowding many of the town’s homes. Similar conditions exasperated firefighters last fall in the San Bernardino Mountains.

The town is private property, so it’s up to homeowners and the local fire department to do something about it.

“When I drive through this town, I see people who don’t sweep needles off their roofs, I see huge piles of firewood on people’s decks and twice as many trees as there should be,” Morgan told the crowd. “No bush, no shrub, no tree is worth your life.”

Will homeowners be willing to lose some trees?

“People will be in an uproar to knock those down,” Martin said. “That’s human nature. People will say, ‘Get hers or get his. Leave mine alone.’ ”