Sorry for the late update, busy day at work….
No major growth on our fire today, which is good. The fire spread a little more to the west and a little to the south, just like I described in my morning post.
So why is the Windy Fire burning so much more active? There are a few factors: topography, weather, fuel types definitely played a roll into things. But I think the most important factor is forest management. (No this is not a political post, so don’t go there!)
For years, the Park Service (Dept. of Interior) has managed fire as a tool to manage the health of the forest. The Forest Service (Dept. of Agriculture) has suppressed fire to preserve a commodity (timber, grazing land). I wrote a college paper on fire management in 1997 and have been a student of it ever since. I believe because our Park has done a good job at managing fire, we are reaping the benefits. We saw this first hand last year during the Castle Fire, where it raced and ravaged through the National Forest, then nearly went out when it reached the Park boundary. I believe we are also seeing the benefits of good management practices on this fire. I hope we will continue to see good things if the fire does make it down to our community. I have posted maps of past managed fires and prescription burns.
As for the fire, I hear they are moving a lot of equipment in and scouting the land to put in containment and contingency lines. There was minimal aircraft usage due to smoke but there was two Cal Fire tankers that were dropping on targets of opportunity around Oriole Lake and Milk Ranch.
There is a stronger low pressure system approaching. This might cause an increase in fire activity as the smoke lifts. Hopefully crews will be in place if this happens.
As you can see from the map below, the fire has minimal spread where the “Paradise 2” fire was in 2003.
--Matt G.
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