Forest Service is seeking input on restoring Angora burn area
by Adam Jensen, Tahoe Daily Tribune, May 21, 2008 [here]
Amid banging hammers and the hum of construction equipment, Diana Freeman noticed a short, bright-green growth sticking up near some rocks and a small, slightly faded U.S. flag in her front yard.
“My tulips are coming back,” Freeman exclaimed gleefully. “I just noticed those.”
In April, Freeman and her husband, Stan, were among the first people who lost homes in last summer’s Angora fire to move back into the area.
While much of the forest surrounding the home on Pyramid Court still is an anemic patchwork of black, brown and green, Stan Freeman is persistently upbeat about the recovery of the neighborhoods burned by the Angora fire.
“It’s going to be phenomenal in a few years, and I hope everyone knows that,” Stan Freeman said.
Like many of the homes in the Angora burn area, U.S. Forest Service land runs behind the Freemans’ backyard.
How the thousands of acres of federal land burned by the Angora fire will experience a resurgence of life similar to the Freeman’s front yard is the topic of an open house this week.
“We want to hear from the community how they want the area affected by the Angora fire to look in the next 10 to 50 years,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Cheva Heck said in a statement. “We will be looking at options for replanting, reducing fuels, reconstructing stream channels, restoring meadow and streambank vegetation, and providing access for recreation through our roads and trails.”
Angora Fire Restoration Open House
When: 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Lake Tahoe Community College Boardroom, 1 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe
Various emergency restoration activities have taken place in the burn area, but the open house represents one of the first opportunities to give input into the long-term restoration of the area.
“The intent of the meeting is not to present a restoration plan,” said Forest Service spokesman Rex Norman. “We are at the very beginning of developing the restoration plan for the Angora area.”
After an introduction by Lake Tahoe Basin Forest Supervisor Terri Marceron, resource specialists will be available at stations at the open house to explain possible activities, answer questions and take input.
Thursday’s meeting will begin a 30-day period during which the Forest Service will invite the public to review possible activities and comment on plans for the future of the Angora fire area.
There will be additional opportunities to comment on Angora restoration as the Forest Service begins the National Environmental Policy Act process for the restoration project.
The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will post restoration planning information on its Web site at www.fs.fed.us/r5/ltbmu and also make it available at the front desk at the Forest Supervisor’s Office at 35 College Drive.
As for the Freemans: “We’re just happy to be back,” Stan said.
by Tallac
I had a chance to attend this “open house” put on by the the USFS and fortunately bit my tongue to avoid a semantic shouting match.
The Federal Lands that burned in the Angora Fire should never be “restored” to conditions as they were the day before this catastrophe. Their mismanagement over the decades got us to where we are today.
This had better become a rehabilitation/recovery quality project as some of us suggested.
While we appreciate the Feds allowing us locals to provide early input with regards to reforestation, ecology, wildlife habitat, add/decommission trails, etc. before the formal NEPA, I believe it is still falling on deaf ears and is just a show of faked compassion and concern.
The familiar faces were in the crowd, such as the TRPA, League to Save Lake Tahoe, and Sierra Club. Probably someone from the Wilderness Society too. While they also are members of this community, they will most likely be calling the misguided shots, as usual.
So here we are, 11 months later. An honest project proposal should have been done while my friends homes were still smoking, and then implemented.
We won’t see anything happening for another year or two due to the obstructionist special interests with profound lack of science and experience.
No matter the ultimate decisions and plans, it will be too late and hardly beneficial.
It’s truly a shame.
Here’s a secret tip, Tallac. Power comes to those who attend the meetings.
Keep going. Keep repeating the same message over and over again. Don’t take no for an answer. Eventually they will get so weary of it that they will capitulate. They don’t really care whether it’s called “restoration” or “recovery.”
But once they give an inch, take some more. Keep backing them up. Before you know it, they will be used to capitulating to you. Then you will have the upper hand, and the control. They will be unable to proceed without your advice and consent.
All it takes it perseverance and unbending will power. Act like the boss, and someday you will be the boss.
Note that no NEPA process was required to put the forest in a flammable condition, or to burn it down, but one is needed to do forest recovery.
Note also the the proper term for post-fire rehabilitation is “recovery” not “restoration.” Forest restoration is something that happens before a forest is incinerated, in order to prevent catastrophic destruction from wildfires.