Angora: South Lake Tahoe
Tahoe Daily Tribune Staff, Jonah M. Kessel visual director, Jeff Munson editor, Gail Powell-Acosta publisher. Angora: South Lake Tahoe - Disaster. Survival. Restoration. 2007. Pediment Publishing.
On June 24th 2007 the Angora Fire raged out of the Eldorado National Forest and into the Meyers subdivision of South Lake Tahoe. When the fire was finally controlled three days later, 254 homes had been burned in the largest and most destructive fire in Lake Tahoe history.
The Tahoe Daily Tribune and sister papers in the Sierra Media Group found themselves at the center of a national story. ‘Round the clock news and pictures were in demand. In the aftermath, they realized that no one was better equipped to tell the whole story, and so produced this combination of reportage and photography.
The reports are compelling tales of private terror, loss, and grief, but also of courage, indomitable spirit, and the will to rebuild with strong community support.
The photography is even more compelling. One picture shows a swing set, the plastic seats melted in the fire. Another shows a statue of St. Francis, the patron saint of wildlife, against a backdrop of charred rubble and a destroyed forest. Aerial shots are excellent.
Angora is an important record of disaster and response, of heartbreak and renewed resolve. Angora is the hands-on story, the insider’s viewpoint. It springs from the people most affected, and is a testimony of residents and neighbors. That makes it different than your average fire chronicle, and special.
There is a good chance that Angora will never appear in your library. A limited number of copies are available from the Tahoe Daily Tribune [here]. Proceeds from the sale of the book are dedicated to helping Angora Fire victims.
The Monster Reared His Ugly Head
Paxon, Jim. The Monster Reared His Ugly Head: The Story of the Rodeo-Chediski Fire and Fire As a Tool of Nature. 2007. Cedar Hill Publishing [here]
Short review by Mike Dubrasich, with Excerpts
Jim “the fire guy” Paxon was the Information Officer on the Rodeo-Chediski Fire. In 2002 that fire consumed 470, 000 acres and was largest and most expensive fire in the recorded history of Arizona.
In The Monster Reared His Ugly Head Paxon recounts the day by story of the Rodeo-Chediski Fire with the polished prose of a pro IO, but in very unbureaucratic personal terms. He begins the story with a description of the forest and his personal experience, knowledge, and relationship to it.
This sets the appropriate stage, because the fire was personal to a great many people. What burned down was not wildlands but homelands.
Paxon tells of the Ancient Ones and their fires. The early inhabitants of the Mongollan Rim were agriculturalists and apartment dwellers, builders of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. The Apaches came later to the White Mountains, but Like the Ancient Ones, the Apaches wielded anthropogenic fire, regular seasonal fires that encouraged nuts, berries, forage for game, and safety from catastrophic fires.
Forestry in Indian Country
Over the last twenty years there has been one clear, consistent, and surprisingly infallible advocate for forests, Mr. James Petersen of the Evergreen Foundation. Jim is the founder, publisher, and editor of Evergreen Magazine [here].
Evergreen Magazine is a step above any other forestry periodical, but occasionally Jim publishes a super issue, one that is truly archival. Winter 2005-2006, is one such ground-breaking, deeply insightful, historic work. Entitled Forestry in Indian Country: Models of Sustainability for Our Nation’s Forests? the issue examines forestry as practiced by Native Americans on tribal reservations and compares it to forestry practiced on our National Forests. It is a superb collection of essays, expert reports, and stunning photography (many by Larry Workman of the Quinault Nation).
So much is revealed in this issue. The first articles are by outsiders, Euro-American forest scientists with political foci. They seek to impose “helpful” red-tape bureaucratic burdens on the tribes. They do not mention the interwoven historical nature of the forest and the Indians. Their approach is sadly prejudicial and bigoted. Imagine telling people who have managed their land successfully for thousands of years how the white man thinks it ought to be done, complete with phony ecology and “natural” catastrophic fire.
The Egley Fire
by various authors, including
Mike
bear bait
Backcut
InciWeb
and others
Published by the Western Institute for Study of the Environment, Jan, 21, 2008
Full text [here]
Excerpt:
This whole Egley deal stinks. The biggest part of the fire is a reburn on ground roasted in 1990. I wonder if there is an agenda there.
My anger is beyond words. My estimation of the Feds fire suppression abilities is the lowest. The frigging feds are worthless.
My friend just sent pictures of his cabin and bunk house, both burned to the ground. He lost it all. He did all the right things: built a pond with a half million gallons of water storage fed by a robust spring system right next to the cabin and had thinned and limbed his timber and burned the piles. And now it all is gone to ashes.
I am sitting here with tears in my eyes. That’s my friend standing on the pavement, fire racing for his little ranch and cabin, his piece of Paradise, where he has been an outstanding steward.
……………………………………………….
