Wildfire threat dominates enviro summit talks
Sens. Harry Reid and Dianne Feinstein have been proponents of Lake Tahoe for years. Photos/Kathryn reed
By Kathryn Reed
CAMP RICHARDSON – Now in its 18th year, the Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit is the place for politicians and others to tout how much they care about the basin, what they’ve done to make it great and what they want to do for the future.
Since the first summit, $1.74 billion has been invested through what’s called the environmental improvement program. Much of that is taxpayer money, with $323.7 million from the private sector. Those private dollars continue to grow as government at all levels has less to dole out.
But if the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act is reauthorized, it calls for $415 million from the feds. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, is the sponsor of the bill.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, who hosted the event at Valhalla, said the entire investment is working. At the first summit a white dinner plate-like device could be seen to a depth of 64 feet, while today the naked eye can view it at 75 feet. She rattled off the number of road miles that have been improved, acres of forest treated for fuels reduction and wildlife habitat restoration, and the commitment to preventing more invasive species from taking hold in Lake Tahoe.
Sen. Harry Reid speaks Aug. 19 at the annual environmental summit. Also on stage are Rep. Mark Amodei, Rep. John Garamendi, Sen. Dean Heller, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Gov. Jerry Brown, Gov. Brian Sandoval, Rep. Tom McClintock, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The theme of the Aug. 19 event was Drought, Wildfire and Invasive Species: Confronting the Effects of Climate Change on Lake Tahoe. More than 300 people attended the event.
Wildfire dominated the talks, especially with the lawmakers signing a proclamation updating the multi-agency fuel reduction program that is led by the Lake Tahoe Fuels and Fire Team.
“This is important because fire is going to be with us and more so in the future,” Fire Chief Mike Brown with North Lake Tahoe Fire Department said.
It is designed to be a strategy to protect life and property in the basin. Fire chiefs from throughout the basin were in attendance – as they have been most years.
Fire has been a constant topic ever since the 2007 Angora Fire reduced 254 houses to ash. Many of those homes on the outskirts of South Lake Tahoe have since been rebuilt and the forest has new growth, but so many burned trees remain as a visual reminder of what happened that June.
While most of the electeds talked nice and about how well the California and Nevada delegations get along, it was Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay, who had some of the most impassioned words of the day. He is an outspoken critic of the U.S. Forest Service and environmentalists, especially when it comes to harvesting timber after a fire. He singled out how the wood from last year’s Rim Fire is just standing there.
“Excess marketable timber should be sold and removed from the forests, with the proceeds used to provide for forest restoration and the reduction of ladder fuels,” the congressman who represents the California side of Lake Tahoe said. “The sale of excess timber and the use of biomass generation can substantially supplement the cost of fuels reduction, making the proper management of our forests cost-effective once again.
“The escalating costs of fighting fires should be treated as other natural disasters and not funded by shorting fuel reduction budgets.”
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval spoke of having recently hiked to Snow Valley Peak and being able to see the impact of drought in the high country. That lack of moisture ties into growing concerns that fire is a real threat to the area.
Geoff Schladow (TERC), Joanne Marchetta (TRPA) and Nancy Gibson (USFS) listen to the speakers.
Geoff Schladow, executive director of Tahoe Environmental Research Center, also pointed out how wildfires inside and outside the basin impact air and water quality here.
Schladow said having data going back to the early 1960s has allowed scientists to understand how Tahoe has changed, and he added research needs to continue. But that takes money.
California Gov. Jerry Brown said, “The success to date give us a lot of encouragement. At the end of the day, nature rules.”
McClintock is out of touch and needs to go.
Did he say anything about supporting the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act?
First, to Orale – no, he said nothing about the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, as he, among his Republican colleagues (Amodei & Heller) did not sponsor it, but ironically, they did. . .
I did not hear him say anything about biomass, just about “using the proceeds from selling timber to use for forest restoration”, a real ‘non sequitur’ if ever there was one – if he was only referring to those standing after a fire, then I apologize for not hearing that, but his call for selling the timber was more about creating the funds for restoration, than it was about legislating funds to do it – which ironically is consistent with what the Forest Service already does, as Congress never gives them enough money to be the stewards their name would naturally imply. . .
That Governor Sandoval is President of the Western Governor’s Association may be more significant than anything McClintock stands for, as fire dangers similar to Tahoe’s condition are replicated in all the western states, as the Big Tree evergreens are all in the West – the 10 states represented by the WGA – and it’s true – biomass generation can most probably partially supplant timber sales, in economically reviving some mountain environments, & rightfully become part of our national energy policy, if & when we ever have one. . .
Cutting down trees that took hundreds of years to grow to create funds to “restore the forests” is a ‘non-sequitur’ of the first order, unsustainable as anathema to Forest Health, in forestrys very important role in carbon (CO2) storage. . .and ultimately suggests that there will be enough fires to supply McClintock’s idea as presented (cut & sell the standing trees after a fire), a most repulsive idea for anyone who has been through one. . . all for the sake of being anti-government, of which he himself is a member. . .(?)
With proper perspective, the theme this year was actually about “system conditions”, more than any of the individual categories (fire danger, invasive species, drought, climate change), as the more the conditions change, the more we’ll have to pay attention (more $$) to the whole system, making Sustainability more & more justifiable, sensible, and cost-effective. . . something Governor Brown merely alluded to in his Keynote, but was nevertheless correct in doing so. . .
Mcclintoc only points fingers
Wow, just read McClintock’s comments from the Summit (he proudly printed them in his monthly newsletter).
He used the Summit, which is an event that is supposed to be focused on protecting the Lake, to lobby for increased salvage timber sales with decreased studies about what a salvage sale will do to the area. It seems to me that he sees money when he sees a forest. Its guys like him who dammed up Hetch Hetchy. He needs to go.
Orale, do you ever notice all the dead trees standing along the hillside above Tahoe Mountain Road? Most of that was going to be logged out by private companies after the fire, at least until the enviros stopped them. Now it’s just ugly dead, dangerous snags standing there. Miles of ’em. And eventually they’ll have to be dealt with, no doubt at taxpayer expense. The same issue is facing us regardig the Rim Fire destruction. If you’re going to get the issue of burned wood dealt with by private industry, it’s got to be done right away. Once it sits for a couple of years, which is what happens when the lawyers get in the way, it’s worthless to the timber industry, and then WE get to pay. Again.
That’s what Mr. McClintock was talking about. Not about making money. He was talking about saving taxpayer money, while at the same time fixing environmental damage.
Don’t let your prejudices get in the way of seeing solutions.