How
permaculture and its toolbox of techniques for making landscapes and communities more resilient to natural disasters like the wildfires we have less than 5mi from our house has been on my mind a lot recently. As we are now forced to leave our place with a level 3 evacuation of our area, I have some time to type some of these thoughts.
As the fires started and spread, the past ten days have been a scramble to do many of the things I meant to do for the past three years since we moved up to our off grid pyrophytic parcel on the edge of Six Rivers National Forest. It is a lot easier to let go of my OCD tendencies when I can smell smoke on the air and see it billowing over the horizon. Level, plumb, square, who cares! Just get that particle board carport wall covered with anything less flammable (i used scraps of metal roofing). All that flammable junk in there?
Yard ornaments! Smoke weakening our
solar powered
water pump to tanks? Burn some dead dinosaurs in a generator and get those tanks full! Watering zone 4
trees with an IBC tank in my truck? That seems like an absurd waste of time and water right now.
While urgent action has its place, I am also thankful for the time I’ve had to do a lot of deliberate
permaculture design and implementation since the kick in the pants that was the Slater Fire getting within 25mi of us in 2020. That seems pretty far now, but when it traveled 25mi in one windy and hot day it seemed to be at the doorstep. I think the best way I can look at this SRF Smith River Fire l, whether it burns our place or not, is as a preparation for the next one, which is inevitable. Whatever the current fire does not burn will be protected by its scar. It is also the best possible motivation for action and preparation for the next one.
Maybe the reason I planted many hundreds of trees was so we get a couple badass drought tolerant ones of each species that will be worth breeding for restoration of whats burning now. It was a lot easier to take the structure protection crew’s removal of some of our lovely
native vegetation near the house when we have nursery beds full of edible hardwood and deciduous (thus more fire resistant) seedlings and cuttings.
I can still think of a dozen major things I could have, would have,
should have done. That big
pond I am planning up at the highest keypoint above the house would
be nice right now. Goats clearing brush all over would have been good despite the fact I cannot stand their
milk or cheese (I really wish I could learn to like it but all I taste is mold). A major prescribed burn and many many
biochar burns would be great to have under our belt. So much to do.
Still, what
permaculture based projects I have done may (knock on
wood) save the house. The structure fire prep crew said our place was the 2nd best on the mountain, behind only the
local fire chief’s place, which has embraced a lot more
concrete in its design than I would want to live with. They also seemed pleased to hear that the gutterless house has been shedding water into a
swale filled with mulch amidst our zone 1 garden, and which weeps down both sides of the ridge below. “Well thats why your pine trees look so healthy compared to most around here”, one fire guy said. They said with how defensible the place is, they will have a crew and at least one truck on site if the fire gets close. I guess all those yellow jacket stings I got clearing brush were worth it!
Well, this was just kind of a ramble, but if it motivates anyone else to put in their own fire resilient design, it will have been worth the thumb workout.
Thanks for all I have learned from this forum and all those who did the research that informed what I have gotten done so far. Thank you firefighters as well of course! I hope you all stay safe this fire season and that this is as beneficial a burn as possible while damaging as little life and property as could be hoped for.
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