Desert becoming susceptible to wildfires

Director of Natural History for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Mark Dimmitt wrote: “During my 40 years of wildflower chasing, I never saw or heard of a large desert fire below 3000 feet elevation until the 1990s….”

Of course, “large” is a relative term that needs some perspective to make any sense, and this is usually provided by a comparison. And, on comparison, open desert land wildfires historically haven’t ranked anywhere near the magnitude of fires in other landscape zones such as forest, chaparral, valley grassland and so on.

Yet, anyone who saw the Sawtooth Fire of 2006 might tend to disagree. After all, this is the desert, and that fire burned over 61,000 acres. It destroyed 50 homes and 92 other structures and caused one resident death. If that isn’t comparative magnitude, what is?

MBCA Boardmember Mark Wheeler, who is also well known locally as a writer and naturalist, wrote this in a highly informative but sobering article in last week's Hi-Desert Star on changes in the local plant communities that increase the desert's chances of wildfire.

He summarizes:

Exotic grasses and the Sahara Mustard are extremely aggressive and will spread especially quickly into disturbed sites, whether they are disturbed by fire, grading, flooding or otherwise. Physiological adaptations give these plants a distinct advantage over most natives in recovery after fire incidents, and their growth habits extend the fire season. To whatever extent possible, these plants must be discouraged from becoming established. Failing this, we risk losing the desert to their weedy rule, and losing desert homes to increasingly larger wildfires.

Learn more about how we got this way in the rest of the article.

FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Plant Life and Invasive Mustard pages of the MBCA Website. Also, see more posts on Plant Life and Fire on this blog.

Desert Wildfire Workshop on Aug. 22

There will be a Desert Wildfire Workshop on Friday, August 22, 8:30 am-1:00 pm at the Yucca Valley Community Center.

This is a FREE event hosted by CAL FIRE, San Bernardino County Fire Dept, Town of Yucca Valley, and UC Cooperative extension. Refreshments!

House and Property: Featured speaker Steve Quarles explores fire susceptibility of various building materials, components, and assemblies with a Live Burn Demonstration. Steve is the University of California Building Materials Testing Expert and will burn deck assemblies, walls, fences, and more as part of a special day of presentations including local Fire Professionals. Find out what new California Fire Hazard Severity Zone ratings mean for living, remodeling, and building in the local desert.

Landscape: Firescaping basics including the arrangement of plants in the landscape, interactions between vegetation and structures, low water use landscapes, utilization of native plants, conservation of Joshua Trees, invasive weeds and more.

Environment: Special challenges of living in the “Wildland Urban Interface.” Variable climate, watershed values, increasing demands on water supplies, habitat in the human matrix, with presentations by local fire officials on local fire behavior and fire history in the valley.

Yucca Valley Community Center, 57090 Twentynine Palms Highway, Yucca Valley, CA. Call (909) 387-2242 for more information, or e-mail Kamcarthur@ucdavis.edu. Fire Demonstration information available here.

The State of California CAL FIRE Website also has current fire updates as well as extensive resources on protecting your home and property, including information on issues of Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI).

FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Plant Life and Invasive Mustard pages of the MBCA Website. Also, see more posts on Plant Life and Fire on this blog.

Invasive plants targeted by new National Council Plan

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior, "Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne...convened the National Invasive Species Council (NISC) at which he oversaw the adoption of the new 2008-2012 National Invasive Species Management Plan developed collaboratively by 13 federal departments and agencies and their partners."

Like many regions in the West, the Morongo Basin is increasingly plagued by invasive plant species, which can lead to displacement of native species and ruinous wildfires.

The new Plan, which replaces the 2001 plan, will "focus federal efforts to prevent and control invasive species, which are defined as species that are nonnative or alien to a nation or region and that cause or are likely to cause harm to the economy, environment or human/animal health." The Plan is viewable as a pdf here.

Read more about the devastation caused by invasives in the West in the "The Beige Plague" in the Los Angeles Times.


FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Plant Life and Invasive Mustard pages of the MBCA Website. Also, see more posts on Plant Life and Fire on this blog.