The joint Shasta Chapter CNPS/Shasta Environmental Alliance field trip to learn about Carr Fire treatment methods on the Westside Trail Complex finally took place Saturday, March 18; snow had cancelled the originally scheduled field trip. Over 20 people attended. Originally, three professionals were going to lead this field trip: two Bureau of Land Management Ecologists and one Fire Management Officer. However, the two ecologists were unable to attend due to illness, so Fire Management Officer Greg Dunn led the walk and discussion on his own.
Greg did an excellent job of explaining the treatment of an area following fire, pointing out how the vegetation will look in 5 to 10 years. He explained the various treatments, and the science and philosophies behind each, as applied to Wildland–Urban Interface. One treatment area that we visited was extreme, with almost everything cut, while in other areas scattered shrubs were left for wildlife habitat and erosion control. In these areas, crews will come back to prune back the numerous leaders of the many black oaks and interior live oak trees that are resprouting from their root crowns to concentrate growth in one or two leaders.
The group had a lot of questions for Greg and he handled them well. People were still asking him questions as we headed back to our cars. The only disappointment was that we did not get the perspective of an ecologist, but that will have to be left for another field trip. ~David Ledger
