Rim Fire: effect of this massive fire on wildlife, forest, and watershed resources is already a devastating reality.

CSERC update with key information about the Rim Fire west of Yosemite Park:  

The huge Rim Fire expanded by another 40,000 acres yesterday (Thursday, August 22nd), growing to over 105,000 acres in total size.  The fire has now swept into Yosemite Park on both sides of Lake Eleanor and is burning all along a broad front of Park land stretching south to Mather. Precious old growth forests have been consumed by the flames that continue to sweep eastward into Yosemite Park wilderness and north into National Forest lands.

While TV and radio news coverage have focused primarily on the risk to 2,500 homes in the Pine Mountain Lake and Groveland areas, the effect of this massive fire on wildlife, forest, and watershed resources is already a devastating reality. Unlike many lower-intensity wildfires that mostly result in under-burning that leaves large portions of forests still surviving, the Rim Fire has spread with crown fires that literally roast everything across entire mountainsides.

Flames have systematically overrun vast areas of the Tuolumne River canyon, with entire hillsides now only containing blackened tree trunks and ashes. The important Jawbone winter deer range area has burned. Many square miles of 20 and 30-year old tree plantations from previous fires have been consumed. Countless known nesting territories for spotted owls, goshawks, and other species have gone up in smoke.

The scale of what has already burned is beyond the ability of most people to easily comprehend. An area of 165 square miles has already burned, and the majority of the fire perimeter is not even close to being effectively contained.

CSERC staff is grieving for the incomprehensible number of animals that had no ability to escape or to move mile after mile ahead of the fast-moving flames. For those that somehow found refuge in pockets of lower-intensity burn areas, the fire’s consumption of almost all food and habitat across broad areas makes survival far more difficult.

For the last two decades CSERC staff has cooperated with the Forest Service and supported efforts to reforest and rehabilitate tens of thousands of acres of the Stanislaus Forest that burned in three major previous fires. Millions and millions of dollars of restoration and reforestation efforts have now been devoured by the Rim Fire, and years of work have been tragically lost.

ADDITIONAL PRECIOUS OLD GROWTH FOREST IS AT RISK

The latest Forest Service fire map show that the Rim Fire is now burning east of Cottonwood Road in the mostly wild Clavey River canyon, where some of the best old growth habitat in the Stanislaus Forest has survived until now. In Yosemite, some areas of the wilderness west of Hetch Hetchy burned previously, but the current fire could wipe out the irreplaceable patches and blocks of old growth forest habitat that managed to survive the previous fires across that broad area.

You can link to the latest Forest Service fire map here (as of 8/23/13).

Inciweb is another informative and up-to-date website to learn latest news on the Rim Fire.

 It is likely that given the high priority for protecting residential areas of  Tuolumne, Groveland and Pine Mountain Lake in particular, vast areas of the Rim Fire will be left to burn unchecked. The fire front burning up into northwest Yosemite is more than 8 miles wide, and the terrain is extremely rugged. Areas far out in the Stanislaus Forest will also likely receive lower attention until safety is assured for homes and private property. Given the extreme fire weather conditions, there is a high potential for the Rim Fire to wipe out many of the best remaining natural stands on the Groveland District west of Cherry Lake and on into the Reynolds Creek area. Fire may also push into the Emigrant Wilderness as well.

While there are many sources of Fire News, CSERC will attempt to keep our website updated with news about the precious wild areas and recreational destinations that are so important to our members and the recreating public.