The forests need love and attention
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom is running an advertisement in support of his re-election campaign that touts his work protecting California’s forests. And in another advertisement he’s asking Florida voters to come to California, which it strikes me is rather like asking immigrants from war torn Cameroon to return to Cameroon. I’ve sent time in the California forests.
I went to school in Orange County, California from 1962 to 1975, and one of our favorite pastimes was to take the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to the top and hike in the woods. One winter our family hiked in to a snow camp at Little Round Valley. One summer we entered the wilderness up the Devil’s Slide Trail from Idyllwild and spent a week in the back country, visiting the fire lookout at Tahquitz Peak and summitting San Jacinto peak. We swam in a small lake about a half mile from the tram station: but it’s no longer there.
Last June my son, his pal and I spent a night at Little Round Valley, it’s an easy two mile hike from the top of the tram. You need a permit these days and when I spoke to the ranger in Idyllwild about the permit, I mentioned the lake that’s no longer shown on any maps. He was surprised I knew about it. He said the government persuaded the map makers to leave it off the maps because they didn’t want people to know it was there and go see it. It’s bone dry now.
In 1980-1982 I spent two years with the Marines in San Diego, and my wife and I took the tram to the top a couple times, once on cross country skis to snow camp at Little Round Valley and once we hiked to the peak and back in one day. I wish I could do that today, but age and wisdom about my limitations have the better of me. My point, though, is I’ve spent many days in those forests, and I had never seen a forest as dry as I did last summer.
We raised our family in the Pacific Northwest and, of course, with plenty of rain the woods here are not so challenged by drought as the Southern California forests are. Our problem in the Cascades and Olympics is moss, mushrooms and mold, not dry timber.
The forest needs tending. If it doesn’t burn every now and then, it becomes overgrown and needs to be maintained. I’ve never seen a forest as unkempt as the San Jacinto Wilderness. The floor was covered with a tangle of down trees and fallen branches. Too many dead trees stood, waiting for a reason to burn. The fire load was extreme and very dangerous.
We encountered a ranger on the way back to the tram station and I mentioned the fire load and the need to reduce it. I told him I thought the forest needed work. He said, “I know, but the governor won’t give us the money to do anything about it.” Open fires aren’t allowed, and he hoped hikers would be careful. I said I’d worry more about a lightning strike.
When I saw Gov. Newsom on TV telling us how important forest fire prevention was to him, I thought this was just another politician feeding us a load of baloney. Maybe he could spend less money flying out of state pregnant women in for abortions and more money protecting our forests.