Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

2 days ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

2 days ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

3 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

3 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

3 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

3 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

3 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

3 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

3 days ago
Creek Fire: 'We Didn't Used To Have These Kinds of Fires." Logger Blames Poor Forest Management
TLBBHMAP3-U010ALB5ANM-348f959abae2-512-300x300-1
By Jim Jakobs, Digital Producer
Published 5 years ago on
September 8, 2020

Share

Loggers blame politicians. Politicians blame climate change. President Donald Trump claims that California doesn’t know how to manage its forests.

While the finger-pointing goes on, Mother Nature doesn’t care.


Listen to this article:


California has set a record with 2 million acres burned this year, and the Creek Fire rages on. Moreover, what is typically the worst part of the wildfire season is just beginning.

Trump signed an executive order in 2018 in an effort to help manage forests better in hopes of alleviating fire danger. Are forests any better for it?

Those that intimately know the terrain after years of driving its dusty logging roads say the order was too little, too late. Those in academia that study fires don’t think logging alone can solve the problem. They finger climate change.

And, the state of California just recently took a step to reshape how its forests are managed.

Meanwhile, Valley loggers are putting their skills toward firefighting now.

Current Logger

“They’ve not managed the forest in any way, shape, or form,” says logger Jon Jackson. “There’s billions of board feet of timber that’s been dead up there for 10 to 20 years.”

Jackson has been logging the area for 30 years.

“I blame bureaucratic liberals,” says Jackson. “It’s a political ballgame.”

Jackson says Southern California Edison has proactively maintained its private forestland. He says in the last five years, he’s helped SCE take out many dead trees. The utility company then uses controlled burns to clear them out.

Jackson says he’s approached the U.S. Forest Service about doing more in the area and offered to help clear dead and dying trees.

“The response you get? It (no) comes from upstairs,” said Jackson, referring to the federal government.

GV Wire℠ asked Jackson if President Trump’s executive order in 2018 did anything to help spur more logging and thinning of the forest.

“It was too little, too late,” said Jackson.

Jackson said that the only working sawmill in the area in Terra Bella isn’t sufficient to process the number of felled trees.

He estimated that in the area of the Creek Fire there are probably between 800 to 900 trees per acre.

“It should be about 200 trees per acre,” Jackson said.

Since he’s not doing any logging due to the fire, he’ll be on the fire lines working with several other “tree fellers” and a couple of bulldozers to make fire breaks.

Jon Jackson standing in front of a dead 9-foot sugar pine tree he felled. The tree was killed by the bark beetle. (Jon Jackson)

Retired Logger

Allen Jackson, who is Jon’s uncle, logged the Creek Fire area for 46 years.

“We’ve loved our forests to death,” Allen Jackson told GV Wire℠ by phone.

He’s referring to the U.S. Forest Service, the Sierra Club, and politicians advocating for tree preservation over forest management for decades.

“We took a hands-off approach after the Clinton administration,” said Allen Jackson. “We didn’t used to have these kinds of fires.”

He started logging in 1969. He says back then, logging was seen as a well-paying job that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars for nearby communities.

But, during the 1980s and ’90s, he saw “a radical change.”

“The U.S. Forest Service stopped logging and was only focused on roadside hazards,” Jackson said.

As for the Creek Fire?

“We have 10 loggers in that area doing nothing because they have to sit on their hands.”

Reshaping Forest Management in California

“Logging is not the answer. “Defensible space and home hardening are what need to be emphasized moving forward.”— Kathryn Phillips, executive director of Sierra Club California 

California has been increasing its efforts. Earlier this month, according to the San Jose Mercury News, in a little-noticed milestone, state officials signed a major agreement with the federal government that aims to reshape how forests are managed for years to come.

Under the plan, California agencies and the U.S. Forest Service will use brush clearing, logging, and prescribed fires to thin out 1 million acres a year by 2025 — an area larger than Yosemite National Park every 12 months, and roughly double the current rate of thinning, which already is double the rates from a few years ago.

The Forest Service and the state Natural Resources Agency also committed to drawing up a 20-year plan by next year to identify which areas of the state will get priority for thinning projects. They will update it every five years and share it with the public.

Environmental groups say they generally support the more aggressive thinning plan. But they have concerns.

“Logging is not the answer,” Phillips told GV Wire℠ by phone. “Defensible space and home hardening are what need to be emphasized moving forward.”

She said that homes built before 1980 need to make sure their attic vent has a screen over it to catch fire embers and prevent them from getting into the attic. She also said that homes that burn typically do not have the recommended 100 feet of defensible space around them.

While there may be a place for logging in the forest management plan, Phillips said, she wants the science to drive the decision making — not the logging industry.

Phillips’s views were echoed by Shaye Wolf, climate science director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Thinning isn’t an effective way to protect communities during wildfire,” Wolf said via email. “Thinning doesn’t stop fires and can even make fires burn hotter and faster. The Creek Fire rapidly burned through areas that were recently logged (including the removal of large dead trees) under the claim that this would curb future fire. In fact, the logged areas are where the fire spread fastest.”

Jim Butler evacuates from the North Fork community as the Creek Fire expands in Madera County on Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. (AP/Noah Berger)

California Forestry Association

“The forests continue on average to get denser and denser because of the significant annual growth compared to annual vegetative treatments.”Rich Gordon, president and CEO of the California Forestry Association

GV Wire℠ reached out to the California Forestry Association with questions about forest management.

President and CEO Rich Gordon provided these responses.

GV Wire℠: The president signed an executive order in 2018 to allow for more forest thinning and logging to help prevent wildfires. Has that executive order helped? Has it been fully enacted?

Gordon: “The Forest Service, California Region, has been increasing their forest thinning program significantly since 2017.  Since 2017, there has been a 35% increase in mechanical thinning from 254 million board feet sold (50,000 acres of mechanical thinning) to near 400 million board feet sold (80,000 acres of mechanical thinning).

Compared to 2010-2017, overall fuels reduction acres (mechanical thinning, hand thinning, prescribed burning, mastication) has increased about the same percentage.  This is a sizeable increase.”

Is enough logging occurring in California to thin forests after our drought and bark beetle infestation?

Gordon: “Mechanical thinning including sold commercial timber volume is now near 400 million board feet per year. Annual growth on productive forest land available for active management on the National Forests in California is 3.6 billion board feet per year. Hence, only 11% of annual growth is being sold to be harvested. The forest continues to get denser and denser.

The Regional Forester in March 2011 recognized publicly in writing that the Forest Service, California Region, had to get to 500,000 acres/year of fuels reduction for 15-20 years to move the 9 million acres of productive forestland available for active management to a condition that would be resistant to wildfire, insects, and disease. In recent years, they have been able to increase annual fuels reduction accomplishment to on average to about 216,000 to 271,000 acres per year; about ½ their goal.

Again, as a result, the forests continue on average to get denser and denser because of the significant annual growth compared to annual vegetative treatments.”

granville-relief

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

DON'T MISS

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

DON'T MISS

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

DON'T MISS

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

DON'T MISS

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

DON'T MISS

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

DON'T MISS

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

DON'T MISS

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

UP NEXT

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

UP NEXT

Fresno Police to Conduct DUI Checkpoint on Fourth of July, Boost Holiday Patrols

UP NEXT

Fresno Crash Involving Unlicensed Teen Driver Sends Woman to Hospital

UP NEXT

Madre Fire Burns More Than 52,000 Acres in San Luis Obispo County

UP NEXT

RIP John Harris: Fresno County Rancher, Racehorse Breeder Was a Visionary Leader Who Leaves a ‘Profound Legacy’

UP NEXT

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

UP NEXT

Kaweah Health Names Its New Chief Nurse. She’s From Texas

UP NEXT

Clovis Police Say At-Risk Missing Woman Found Dead in Mariposa County

UP NEXT

Fresno Police Recover Some of the $40,000 in Fireworks Stolen From Bullard High Team

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

2 days ago

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

2 days ago

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

2 days ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

2 days ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

2 days ago

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

2 days ago

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

2 days ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

2 days ago

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

2 days ago

Boxer Chavez Jr Expected to Be Deported to Mexico to Serve Sentence, Mexican President Says

2 days ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

Can you hear it — that loud roar coming from the East? It’s the sound of 1.4 billion Chinese laughing at us. Thomas L. Friedman The New Yo...

1 day ago

Solar Farm in Riesel, Texas
1 day ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

Caitlin Clark Signs T-Shirt
1 day ago

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 days ago

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

The Madre Fire burning near New Cuyama has scorched 70,801 acres as of Friday, July 4, 2025, afternoon, making it California’s largest wildfire of the year, with only 10% containment and multiple evacuation zones in place. (CalFire)
2 days ago

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

2 days ago

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

A pumpjack operates at the Vermilion Energy site in Trigueres, France, June 14, 2024. (Reuters File)
2 days ago

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 days ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

Billy Wayne Sinisgalli, a 54-year-old transient known locally as Wayne, was found dead along a rural Fresno road Wednesday in what authorities are investigating as a suspicious death. (Fresno County SO)
2 days ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend