The King Fire devastated almost 98,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada, east of Sacramento. Our company lost 18,000 acres of forest. Lately, I’ve had opportunity to spend time in the burn area. There is a lot of work being done by our foresters, biologists, botanists, and others to protect the resources so the timber can be quickly salvaged in an environmentally sensible manner. Most people never get to see what is done to protect the soil, water, cultural resources, and wildlife. In the gallery are images of just some of the work being done.
Hundreds of millions of board feet of timber were killed in the King Fire. Once killed, the wood begins breaking down. It is a race to harvest the trees before their value is lost.
The fire started September 13th. So many organisms died during the fire, but life is beginning to return in sprouts of green.
All foresters are painters of a sort. Give them a can of spray paint and you’ll get instructions for the loggers all over the woods. These instructions are for the placement of rock in a rolling dip. The dip helps drain water from the road and the rock minimizes muddy water running off.
This was a young Ponderosa pine stand of trees lost in the fire.
Blue marks on these trees and blue flagging deliniate a stream protection zone. Even though there is currently no water in this little draw, equipment is restricted from it. This is to minimize soil disturbance next to a waterway.
ELZ means “equipment limitation zone.” These zones are used to keep equipment out of areas to avoid excessive soil disturbance.
Many roads in sensitive areas are rocked. This is done to avoid muddy runoff during the rainy periods.
Roads are rocked coming in and out of stream crossings. Bridges are often upgraded and culvert pipes are up sized to handle greater runoff, which is a common affect following large fires.
Patches of dead trees are left scattered in the burn. These trees provide habitat structure for cavity dwelling wildlife.
Archaeological sites identified in the burn area are protected.
The fire didn’t kill all the trees within the burn. We retain trees that will likely survive the fire damage. High risk trees are removed.
Skidding salvage logs to the landing.
A load of salvage logs roll through the tiny community of Georgetown.
There is a lot of preparation that has to be done prior to logging. It has taken a large team of resource professionals to get the job done on a project this size.
Just for children a picture book about wildfire and the forest rehabilitation that takes place after a fire. Check out, Firestorm In the Forest.
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THE FORESTER ARTIST 
Tim,
We, your followers, are privileged to view educational photos that most people will never see. Have you considered creating a documentary using your photos? Can this photo gallery and others you’ve created be used in training workshops for fellow foresters? I just love what you share with us! Can you tell that? Thank you!
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Linda, you are the best. I really appreciate your appreciation! I have never considered a documentary and I would even know where to begin. It’s a little out of my wheel house, but it’s a great idea. Fortunately, we foresters actually get a lot of opportunity for training. I’m afraid my posts are a bit too simplistic for that audience. Although, I have done a number of professional presentations over the years, but that’s not my normal gig.
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Thanks for your photo essay, it’s interesting to see how you handle the post fire process. Much is familiar following the devastating fires in our area in 2003 which burnt through both natural bushland and many plantations around our city. The one thing I wasn’t aware of was the road rocking, from what I can see a great idea. I don’t know if that was implemented here, but then quite sensibly, the public wasn’t allowed in the burnt out areas for months afterwards. Thank you for your ongoing education for non-foresters.
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I would love to come down and see how your foresters handle the same issues. I know you have the same kind of fire seasons that we do, only during different times of the year. While many practices are good no matter where you are, other practices that work in one part of the world don’t always work in another. Every forest has it’s unique traits and has to be managed accordingly.
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Here’s a link to a picture book about forest fire recovery Firestorm in the Forest http://goo.gl/yK57nw in Amazon or from the publisher http://redtail.com/books/firestorm-in-the-forest.html
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Your photos are beautiful, I may be weird but I find that burnt forest to be just amazingly beautiful. Thanks for your explanation of your work in the forest.
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It is a striking monotone world in a big burn. Almost surrealistic.
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I always heard that if fires had been allowed to do what they do naturally over the years (instead of being “prevented”) the underbrush wouldn’t be so thick and the tall trees could survive fairly easily because there was not much underneath them to burn. True or false?
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True Ali! That is how it used to be. Most of the western forests had repeated fires on about a 12 years cycle. This kept the forests open with large trees and light fuels on the ground. Fire suppression over the last 100 years has caused the forests to become very over grown. This has contributed to the enormous fires we are seeing today. This is a simple explanation for a complex problem. Today, fire can’t be easily reintroduced into the forests because of the forest densities and also because of the number of houses that have been built in many of the forested areas. Logging by biomass thinning is one way to reduce the fuels and is often used before reintroducing fire.
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Fascinating stuff Tim. I do enjoy the insights into your profession.
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Thank you very much Anna!
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