A recent L.A. Times article (June 14, 2019) emphasizes that 1 out of 4 Californians live in a high fire risk area. When it comes to the risk of forest fire in Southern California, Richard Minnich, a fire ecologist at UC Riverside, said he is most concerned about communities that havenʼt burned since the 19th century: Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains, and the isolated, mile-high community of Idyllwild. These areas, he said, have hundreds of trees per acre with trunks more than 4 inches in diameter and an under-story of young conifers and brush. By way of comparison, he said, a healthy, safer forest has about 13 such trees per acre. In the event of a fire, the heavy under-story would create what foresters call a “fuel ladder” that would send flames up into the canopy, triggering a massive blaze. Fire experts and climatologists warn that the heavy rains of recent months produced an excess of vegetation, which over the hot summer will become dry fuel.
Every cabin owner must do his or her part to clear the area around their cabin, remove dry brush, eliminate fuel ladders, and minimize the possibility that a fire could start and spread throughout our Southwest Shore Colony. Please read the complete L.A. Times article here.