Reforestation of McNally Burn, 30 years or 200 years?
By Chris Horgan
Executive Director
Stewards of the Sequoia

The Sequoia Forest Service conducted a field trip on June 11 to discuss their proposal for the McNally Reforestation. This project will determine how quickly or slowly the forest will return to the 150,000 acres incinerated in the 2002 McNally catastrophic wildfire.

The field trip drove through parts of the burn area where staff pointed out the loss of a great deal of old forest habitat & connected habitat. We visited four proposed reforestation sites. It was most disturbing to see the charred remains of a once vibrant forest. The matchstick forest stretches over mountainside after mountainside.

Typical section of McNally burn area 2.5 years after the fire

Forest Service experts including wildlife biologist, geologists, silviculturalists & fishery biologist all agree that it is important to reforest the McNally burn area as quickly as possible. Wildlife Biologist, Teresa Benson, noted that “the forest had previously provided shaded habitat, which is important to many species including California Spotted Owl, northern goshawk & Pacific Fisher”. Phil Strand, Forest Service fisheries biologist, noted “there is no longer enough shading along streams & they are overheating. Without ground cover to hold back soil, streams have filled with sediment”. He concluded, “reforestation is important for wildlife, fish & water quality”.

Many areas were totally burned, leaving no pinecones to provide seeds for trees to sprout from. Forest Service estimates that without tree planting these areas may take 200-500 years or longer to return to forest.

Eight thousand acres are proposed to be treated by replanting trees. This has been done successfully after other fires such as Bonita, Flat & Stormy. The replanted areas have become healthy forests in about 30 years. Adjacent areas that were not replanted have little or no tree growth. However it is not as simple as just planting trees. First the majority of dead standing trees need to be removed. If not they will provide fuel for a future fire that will incinerate the new seedlings.

One proposed area included in the 8000 acre treatment plan

There was concern that bulldozers will be used & disturb soil. Bulldozers will not be used. Feller-bunchers will be used to cut dead trees & carry them to areas to be burned. These machines have a far lighter loading than bulldozers & can even lay a mat of dead trees down so that their tracks do not touch the ground. We were also assured that no new roads would be built.

Competing brush & other vegetation have sprouted up since the fire. To increase the chances of tree seedlings survival, competing vegetation will be reduced using herbicides similar to Round UP. These have been shown to have low toxicity to non plant species. Herbicides will be applied using garden type hand held sprayers, not aircraft.

In the past, when gophers were not removed, seedling planted areas were wiped out as gophers feed on tree roots. Gopher populations will be reduced using small amounts of pesticides carefully applied to underground gopher tunnels. All pesticides will be used in accordance with both federal as well as more stringent California regulations. All pesticides will be carefully monitored.

It will cost about $1500 per acre to do the treatment, planting & manage the seedlings for 5 years.

As one forester noted, “we might have hoped that reforestation could have begun immediately after the ashes from the McNally fire had cooled”. From experience Forest Service knew that reforestation should be done immediately. After the fire there would not have been any need for using pesticides, since there would have been no competing vegetation or gophers. However we have well-intentioned regulations that require Forest Service to spend years & large sums of money performing studies & filing reports & doing public outreach. Today there is no option but to use these tools to restore our forest & wildlife. Without proposed reforestation it will likely take far longer for the forest & wildlife to return.

A forest returns in only Thirteen years with trees planted after the Stormy Fire. Herbicides & pesticides were used here as proposed now.

The main reason as to why management was not done, or not done in a more timely manner, is the regulatory & legal morass that Forest Service must follow. The Forest Service should seek regulatory changes that will allow management & speed the implementation of management without getting tied up in lawsuits. Just as there are guidelines that allow prompt response to fight fires, there should be guidelines that allow prompt response to reforestation. There should also be guidelines to allow thinning to reduce fuel loads & treatment of diseased tree areas.

The same folks, who filed lawsuits to prevent any reasonable management that could have reduced the size of the McNally fire, will no doubt be opposing reforestation. Please be sure & make your views known to the experts who are paid with your taxes, to manage your forests.
Jim Whitfield, Sequoia National Forest, 900 W Grand Ave, Porterville, CA 93257-2035

You can read the McNally reforestation Environmental Impact Statement on the Federal Register, Volume 70, Number 74, page 20350-20352