As wildfire conditions look to be as bad this coming summer as last, criticism continues over state officials’ response to the Carlton Complex wildfire.

The Carlton Complex fire — the largest in the state’s recorded history, responsible for destroying more than 300 homes — burned out months ago. But you could still hear the damage echoing in the choked and sometimes angry voices of Central Washington officials at a House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/latestnews/2879792-8/states-response-to-carlton-complex-fire-criticized 

 bobshannon.org

Updated at 8:37 PM PST on Thursday, Jan 29, 2015
The New Year is still waiting for its first rain.

The driest January on record is coming to a close, with one thing in common from Jan. 1 to today: no rain. No rain fell on San Francisco this month at all. That's a bone dry, rain-less January for the first time in San Francisco history, according to reports.

The Huffington Post notes that snowpack in the Sierras, the predictor of whether or not reservoirs will fill up or be empty throughout the year, is "alarmingly low," some 20 inches below normal for this time of year. Statewide, January is shaping up to be the driest on record, according to state water watchers.

In the Bay Area, December was wet indeed: over a foot of rain fell over much of the Bay Area.

Source: www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Driest-January-On-Record-Is-Almost-Over-290287631.html 

 bobshannon.org

When it comes to understanding human impacts on forests, the first thing that springs to mind is probably logging. And while logging does leave a heavy footprint, it’s not the only anthropogenic activity that affects forest health. In California, ninety years worth of data shows that climate change is also stressing the state’s forests – and not in the ways you might think. Most of the state’s forests actually have greater tree density now than they did in the 1920s and 1930s. So what’s going on?

It turns out that forest ecology is, unsurprisingly, simply more complicated than whether there are fewer or more trees. Previous research has shown that forests in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have shifted in composition over the last century. As larger trees (>60cm diameter) have died off, they’ve been replaced with more, smaller ones.

bobshannon.org

McIntyre and his team compared forest surveys made in the 1920s and 1930s by UC Berkeley researcher Albert Wieslander to those made between 2001 and 2010 by the US Forest Service. They discovered that while overall forest biomass declined over that period, tree density increased by thirty percent. That trend had already been noted for the Sierra Nevadas, but McIntyre’s group found it to be true also of the Sierra Foothills, the coastal ranges of Northern, Central, and Southern California, and the peninsular ranges south of the Los Angeles area.

The researchers then compared the changes in forest composition with estimates of changes in “climatic water deficit,” or CWD. CWD is an estimate of water demand relative to water availability. Higher values indicate lower availability, while lower values suggest there’s enough water to go around. Higher CWD is driven by phenomena like increased temperatures, earlier snowmelt, and decreased precipitation – all representative of the effects of global climate change on California’s long-term weather patterns.

 

They discovered that declines in large tree density correlated with increases in CWD, while no correlation was found for small trees. That suggests that large trees suffer disproportionately during droughts, and that small trees have exploited the space made available by the disappearance of their larger counterparts. Logging surely plays its role, as does pollution, in the more urbanized parts of the state, but no single variable explains the similar trend across the state as elegantly and simply as drought. 

Through the collaboration of faith-based organizations and government agencies, we can work together to educate and empower our communities to prepare before disasters strike.
ReadyOC.org provides preparedness information and valuable resources for everyone including churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and community-based organizations to help your congregation and organization members understand the importance of preparedness.

Take Action

Develop a comprehensive emergency plan for your church, including steps to respond if a disaster strikes when your congregation is together or apart.
Consider joining OperationOC as a faith-based organization in partnership with other community groups.
Host a Ready Sunday event at your church during National Preparedness Month every September.
Partner with the American Red Cross of Orange County to offer your facility as an evacuation shelter for the community.
Empower your congregation members to volunteer for a church C.E.R.T. team.
Link to ReadyOC.org on your church website and provide online resources to your congregation.

 Ron Rattray