April 17, 2019
Liz Writes Life
Snow survey
Employees from the USFS Klamath National Forest trudged
through deep snows on April 1, 2019 to obtain measurements from eight
snowcourses, which are specific historic measuring spots in the mountains
around Scott Valley. And the results are great! When averaging all of the
snowcourse measurements the results shows 148 percent of the historic average of
snow and the water equivalent was 134 percent.
The highest snow measurement was on Scott Mt. at elevation of
5,900 feet with 104.5 inches. An historic average starting from 1986 was 49.9
inches making it 210 percent. Wow! The south end of the valley received a lot
of snow with the Middle Boulders, just west of Mt. Bolivar, showing 162 percent
170 and 173 percent of the historic average with Dynamite Meadow showing 77
inches compared to an average of 44.5 inches.
Like Scott Mt., Wolford Cabin, established in 1949 with an
elevation of 6,150 feet also measured 104.5 inches of snow, making it 126
percent of a 70-year average.
Swampy John and Etna Mt., which have been measured since
1951, averaged 100 percent and 116 percent. And Box Camp, to the north at 6,440
feet had 109.5 inches giving it 129 percent of historic average.
Now, we just hope it doesn’t get too warm too fast!
Garden
After the rain (over a week ago) the garden soil looked
perfect for tilling, so on Tuesday I put on my gloves and started pushing the
hand-plow. Weeds were about four-inches high and tilled-up pretty easily along
the path I want to plant and layout a length of soaker hose. There are some
patches in the garden where the weeds are too high and I will need the grubbing
hoe. It felt good to get about two-thirds of the garden tilled; but then I was
pretty tired for several days! Ha, ha. Yep, I am out-of-shape.
Early in the week, I purchased some sugar snap peas and put
them to soak, planning on planting the next day. Didn’t have the gumption, so
put them in the refrig and didn’t get them planted until several days later. After
the warmth on Saturday, there were some pretty sad and dry plants.
So, I attached
several hoses and irrigated the rhubarb, garlic, lettuces, yellow tulips, daffodils,
young holly hocks, bee balm, feverfew, Shasta daisies, lung wort, violets and
just-peeking-up peonies. Whew! I only have one frost-free faucet that is
available to use right now, cuz it can still freeze for another six-weeks or
more.
Fire and forests
There was good news at the March 28, 2019 Scott Valley
Protect Our Water meeting. Ray Haupt, Dist. 5 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor, is
involved with several task forces at the private, state and federal levels
trying to improve forest health and management to greatly reduce the tragic
forest fires the West is experiencing.
In early March, Ray was asked to share information at a
Western Sheriff’s Assoc. meeting in Reno. Ray spoke to about 70 sheriffs, who
said they are sick of all the smoke and had enough of terrible fire fighting
tactics. As an association, the sheriffs are demanding much better and active
forest management from the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
The county sheriffs are also fed-up with footing the bill for
policing and safety during long fire-fighting engagements as it adds a heavy
burden to their county budgets. The only aspect for reimbursement is overtime,
which does come from the federal agencies.
A few days after the sheriffs’ meeting, Ray drove to
Sacramento and met, once again, with Jim Hubbard the Undersecretary of the U.S.
Dept. of Ag. When Ray was in WA D.C., last November, he met with Hubbard, who is
the immediate superior of the Chief of the Forest Service. Hubbard is on-board
with increasing active management and thinning of the forests and there are
funds in the 2018 Farm Bill and the 2018 Omnibus Bull to support this huge
change in managing national forests. This is good news.
There is also new federal legislation that allows for a much
better relationship between the USFS Forests and individual counties. This
project is under the Good Neighbor Authority and provides the county with
responsibility to coordinate (and push) for more work on-the-ground by the
USFS. This is a great step for local government to guide the actual work projects.
It should also improve the local economy.
At the state level, there is the Governor’s 45-day report
that was released in early February regarding the selection of 33 hazardous
fuels projects throughout the state. Only one project was selected in Siskiyou
Co. It is in the Shastina-Weed area. Governor Gavin Newsom followed, in March,
with an Executive Order, which exempted these critical projects from California
Environmental Quality Act review.
This is really surprising as it by-passes
environmental regulations -- something Democrats have demanded for decades and
slows the Timber Harvest Plan projects.
Ray also discussed SB-901 that mandated new clearance and new
equipment standards for power companies. He said these companies are hustling
to do the work and are writing hazard mitigation plans.
Also, Cal-trans is actively treating fuels (trees and brush)
in their right-of-way areas next to roadways. Cal-trans must remove anything
that could fall into the road.
I don’t know how wide their right-of-way is, but after the
fires in the Sacramento River canyon in September it should be a very wide
buffer -- in my opinion.
So, Ray was asked where will all the logs and brush go?
Because of 30 years of the Green enviro agenda, commercial logging industry was
nearly destroyed in the West. This is a major concern for Ray and a major
reason he is talking with Undersecretary Hubbard about the current insufficient
milling capabilities and almost zero infracture for biomass.
Apparently, the technology has been developed to use biomass
to generate power and create much less air pollution (especially compared to
the smoke produced by wildfires), but has yet to be implemented. These plants
must be built. Lumber mills need to make a return and quickly. Is anyone
willing to get-in on the beginning of a much-needed industry?
Ray also said there is hope for the homeowner, who needs to
remove trees and fire-safe their property. State regulations have been relaxed.
For more information, call your local Cal-Fire office.
Next week, Ray will be attending the American Forest Resource
Council meeting in Washington State. This is a collection of private timber
companies, USFS, BLM and counties advocating for health of all forests. In
fact, Siskiyou Co. is a member. Ray is Siskiyou’s representative as well as a
Registered Professional Forester. One of the speakers will be the Chief of the
USFS, who will likely continue to get an earful regarding active thinning and
managing of forests and actively working to stop forest fires.
The next Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting will be
Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Fort Jones Community Center.
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and
farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County
and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at:
lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.
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