The Fire is Out

The "Washoe Fire" near Sunnyside was 100% contained at 11pm last night and this morning we can't see any smoke at all. It looks to be out, and apparently it is now just a mop up operation. Local fire crews responded quickly and put up a huge effort yesterday to contain the fire. They were able to keep it to under 15 acres, with only 5 homes lost. It could have been much worse. One of the factors in minimizing the damage from this fire, was the fuel reduction the US Forest Service had recently performed in the area.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is a bi-state (California and Nevada) regional planning agency created by the federal government in 1969 to protect the Lake Tahoe area. In order to remove a tree from one's property, permission from the TRPA is required (at homeowner's expense). They have a reputation for being rather stingy about it, too. They have been more amenable to tree removal in the last 10-years, but many believe that it is "too little, too late". We now have a basin filled with fuel just waiting for a fire. This week, at the 10th annual Lake Tahoe Forum, US Senators considered declaring an emergency in the area in order to allow the Forest Service to bypass TRPA's control and clean up the forest to reduce fuel. Rumor has it, Senator Diane Feinstein was among the Granlibakken Resort guests who had to be evacuated because of yesterday's fire. While I think she already understood the fire danger problem here, this experience may help underscore the severity of it. Fortunately, the winds blew yesterday's fire towards the US Forest Service land that had undergone fuel reduction work. That is when the fire behavior changed and the firefighters were able to contain it.

I understand that TRPA is concerned about people cutting down too many trees to improve their views. I also get their concern about soil erosion with larger projects and how the run-off could effect lake clarity. I just think that they are being rather short sighted. A large fire in the basin will do way more damage to this area than I can even comprehend. Hopefully the two fires this summer (so far) will encourage the TRPA to be more reasonable and property owners to take action and responsibility for taking care of their land. Myself included.