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The bulldozers disturbed a lot of ground that must be stabilized before the rains come. “The amount of dirt pushed around on a fire is staggering,” Griffin said. They have already put down several hundred bales of weed-free straw mulch and have started planting seed mix. “We’ve got our work cut out for us in the next few weeks, to figure out what needs to be done, and without doing any additional ecological damage,” Smith had told me.

The fires did not reach any of the areas the Fund plans to harvest this year, though some of the areas that did burn were planned for harvest in 2009, 2011, and 2012. It’s too early to tell how much merchantable timber was lost.

Fighting the three fires cost the Fund more than $400,000, mostly for the equipment, but Cal Fire is expected to reimburse most of that. On July 24, Smith said the financial impact of the fires on the Fund’s budget was “modest.”

One important source of income for the Fund, about equal to what comes in from timber sales, is carbon credits, and as counterintuitive as it may seem, Smith said, the fires probably won’t affect these too much. Most of what burned was needles and understory, while most carbon is stored in the trees’ trunks and roots. A forest’s carbon credits are measured by the amount of carbon it accumulates over and above that which is stored by forests that are managed according to standard forestry rules. The credits can be sold to companies, organizations, and individuals who want to offset the effects of their own carbon emissions. The Garcia Forest was one of the first, and largest, forests to have its carbon credits verified by the California Climate Action Registry, and they have “turned out to be an incredibly important tool for us,” Smith said.

Toward More Resilient Forests
The Conservation Fund’s efforts to restore the logged-over Salmon Creek Forest to health, sustain itself economically by selective logging and carbon credits, and protect endangered species have only begun. Restoration efforts include stabilizing or decommissioning old fire roads, replanting slopes clearcut by previous owners, mapping owl nests, removing invasive plants, and flagging sensitive plants near roads to protect them. The Fund is also conducting water-quality monitoring in its watersheds and will put logs in streams to provide habitat for fish.

When the Fund conducts a harvest, it takes care to minimize ground disturbance, especially on steep slopes. It is hands-on work, in contrast to industrial harvests. Last fall, a group touring the Salmon Creek Forest to observe the practices watched in awe as Rick Hautala took down a redwood tree on a steep slope beside a logging road, wielding his chainsaw with the delicacy of a fine woodworker. He showed the watchers in advance where it would fall, across the road, and dropped it exactly where he said he would, barely touching the surrounding bushes.

The light-handed harvesting and good forest management practices used by the Fund, Redwood Forest Foundation, Pacific Forest Trust, Mendocino Redwood Company, and other sustainable forest managers not only restore the forests to a much healthier state, but will also make them more resilient to wildfires. In areas of its forests that were intensively harvested by past owners, the Fund removes weedy tan oak and thins the conifers that have grown back too densely. This reduces the fuel load and opens the canopy, leaving the best trees to grow bigger: larger trees, with thicker bark, can survive fire much better than small ones. “Our high-value forest didn’t burn” in the recent fires, Smith told me. “That’s more resilient.”

Even more heartening, the spotted owls that live in the Salmon Creek Forest don’t seem to have suffered from the fire--and may even be gaining some benefit from it. “The fire doesn’t appear to have burned any nesting habitat,” said biologist Mike Stephens, who studies owls on the Fund’s land (see Into the Woods with Spotted Owls), “and the owls are using the burned area for hunting.” The fire opened up the canopy, making it easier for the owls to hunt, and has also sent the birds’ primary prey, dusky-footed woodrats, scurrying around looking for new homes. “It’s had the effect, if you will, of kicking over the anthill.” And when the rains come this fall, there will be lots of new growth in the forest, potentially spurring a woodrat population explosion.

The Navarro Fire did some damage to the Salmon Creek Forest--mostly to land that had been clearcut in the past--but it has brought some good, too. Throughout northern California, many of the recent fires will have done the same, clearing out piles of dry underbrush and dead wood, opening up the forest so the remaining trees can thrive, and bringing vibrant new growth. The fires have also given Californians a glimpse of their future, and brought home the need to find new ways of living with fire.

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