Mrs. Von Holst and I are traveling on I5 North to Gearhart Oregon. The Sacramento Valley and much of the San Joaquin Valley are filled with smoke. Motels in Sonoma Co.are sold out owing to an influx of evacuees. The Taylor fire complex is burning west of Grant’s Pass OR and has burned 35,000 ac.
Gov. Brown is correct. This is the new normal fire regime for the Pacific Coast States. Too much time has been wasted and too many opportunities lost to avert this certain future. And the idiot growers along I5 have signs up exhorting the public to convince the “gubmint” to “Build more Dams” in watersheds that are aready over allocated, to impound imaginary runoff from rain that will not fall.
Stay safe, and don’t get a flat tire…
If you use Google Maps or other street-view services to see the subdivisions and cultures-de-sacs that have been destroyed in the Carr fire, or in last October’s Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa, you will see ordinary neighborhoods, with well manicured lawns and few trees. The 1991 Oakland fire burned 3000 homes in one day; Anaheim had a similar devastating fire ten years earlier; El Cerrito had one in the '20s. These California fires are not new; they are not predominantly burning homes in the forest; they are not just impacting rich people with mansions, surrounded by nature. They are a threat to every town in the state. California is not going to be abandoned, but we sure have to figure out better defenses and better management of the fire risk that our woodlands present to even our most populated cities.