Jesusita Fire Final Reflections
by Billy Goodnick
I'm looking for an app for my iPhone that will allow me to
hack into someone's old elementary school records and have their diploma
revoked. I'd be willing to pay $0.99, maybe twice that. The object of my revocation
would be the author of the opinion piece in Sunday's News-Press Voices section.
It left me shaking my head in stunned amazement.
Apparently, the writer proposes how we could have
prevented the Jesusita fire if only we had hi-tech towers installed all over
the chaparral. These sophisticated detection devices would instantly see any
movement and somehow tip off authorities before the fire got out of hand. This
should be easily implemented because "we live in the 21st century."
Well, that ought to take care of it. No price tag cited.
No mention of what happens when crews are dispatched to arrest a quail moving
in the bushes.
Preventing the initial source of ignition for any wildfire
is a worthy goal, but I'm not sure that technology is the answer. I'd rather we
put our efforts into education and preparation.
I will steer clear of my beliefs about whether people
should even be allowed to live in the midst of ecosystems whose lifecycles involve
sending up 50' towers of flame from time to time, then regenerating. In my
equation, the allure of nature and the illusion of solitude don't counter the
risk.
I offer few thoughts and resources regarding Santa
Barbara's relationship with fire.
Defensible space
If you live in an area likely to be in the path of a fire,
you have to give your home and the responders a fighting chance. Your first job
is to minimize the possibility of a fire reaching your home in the first place,
applying the principles of Firewise landscaping.
There's lots of information available through local fire
agencies, as well as the Firescape Demonstration Garden at Mission Ridge and
Stanwood Drive. I've blogged about the subject at Edhat and recently at
my new blog at Fine
Gardening Magazine. There are also four
episodes of Owen Dell's and my Garden Wise Guys TV show that were filmed at
the Firescape Garden.
Your second job is to give firefighters an opportunity to
save your house and not just drive by muttering about your lack of
preparedness. If your house doesn't look defensible, they may very quickly go
looking for one that is.
Water conservation
I worked a graveyard shift at the City's Emergency
Operation Center during the peak of the conflagration but had time to talk with
someone at the Public Works desk. It's their responsibility to make sure
there's water in the system for hoses and trucks. With pressurized landscape
irrigation lines bursting from the intense heat, work crews (not emergency
responders) had to go in and shut down the big leaks to assure that the
hydrants were operating.
I'd like to think that everyone understands that water for
their landscaping is a lower priority than protecting our community. So even if
there isn't a fire blazing again this summer, how about making the most of
every drop around your home? I can think of no better starting place than
visiting SBWater.org's landscaping
section at their great website.
Clean-up
In the days after the fire, once most of us were feeling a
tenuous sense of normalcy, I realized that the next potential disaster would be
the clean-up. Ash and grit everywhere: on Biff the Wonder Spaniel and on
counter tops, cars, plants and patios.
Most people's first response is to reach for the hose and
wash the ash away. Well, there is no such place as “away.” In this case, unless
your dirty surfaces drain directly into a planter, “away” is the gutter, which
eventually run to our creeks. The potash, phosphorus and trace minerals found
in ash act as fertilizer in the creeks, upsetting the pH of the water,
encouraging algae blooms and clouding the water for the inhabitants. Bad idea;
read on.
The most heinous response was the attack of the back-pack
blowers. I'm astounded at the lack of knowledge or sheer disregard for the
impacts of airborne ash. It's an extreme health risk to many people. I include
skin irritation, asthma and other bronchial conditions. If you or your gardener
figured “just this once”, I'm sorry, but we all have to breathe the same air.
Here's a blog
I posted in December 2007 describing one approach. Another great source of
“best management practices” is this PDF
file from the County of Santa Barbara.
Help for the Santa
Barbara Botanic Garden
I'd be remiss if I didn't pass along a tragic bit of
horticultural news. This is, after all, a column about gardens. Our very own
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden was hard hit by the Jesusita fire. Though the
iconic meadow and the main buildings and library were spared, the garden was
hard hit. I'm less concerned about the plants. Some are likely rare and
irreplaceable, many will grow back in time. Perhaps the greatest immediate losses
are the tools and equipment that were consumed in the blaze. All power and hand
tools, lost. Trucks, biofuel-powered work carts, gone. The new tractor is
useless.
They need money, not your spare tools. They need
professional-grade, specialized
equipment you can't pick up at the local hardware shop. If you'd like to throw
a few dollars or a check with a lot of zeros their way, here's
a link to get you started.
One last bit of fire-related info. My dear friend and
amazing documentary filmmaker, Jennie Reinish (Tidepool Pictures) is screening
her new film, Behind
the Lines: Fighting a Wildland Fire on Saturday, June 6. The venue will be
more fun than I can comprehend. They're using the parking lot at Samy's Camera
(614 Chapala) to project the movie on the wall. Bring a folding chair and come
at 7 PM to hear Dreamtime Continuum perform. The film starts at dark and your
$5.00 donation goes to the United Way recovery fund for those affected by the
fire (but you can give more, really).
Come say "hi" if you see me at Samy's. I hope this article
helps some of you.
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Billy Goodnick is a nice guy who knows a lot about plants and garden stuff.
www.billygoodnick.com
gardenwiseguy.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/photos/gardenwiseguy
www.sbwater.org/landscapeTv.htm
www.kingbeesb.com
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