The Devils Windstorm (San Joaquin, Crest, Nice: condo, homes, asbestos)

[.highnlite]

On November 30, 2011 a catastrophic windstorm hit the Central Sierra. Winds were recorded on the summit of Mammoth Mountain of up to 160 mph, until the wind gauge broke. Uniquely, the winds were out of the East. Mammoth Airport recorded winds of only 45 mph max.

These winds hit the down slope into the canyon of the San Joaquin River in the area of Devils Postpile. These downslope winds, known as katabatic winds knocked down trees..... How many you may ask? Between the northern tip of Kings Canyon National Park and Tioga Pass an estimated 400,000 trees were blown down overnight. Yep, 400,000 trees in one night.

Incidentally this very same night a condor researcher above Big Sur was killed when a tree blew down on him. The Forest Service rescue crew had to cut their way through down trees on the ridge road. The finally gave up, with trees falling all around them they called off the effort, turned around and had to cut their way back out.


In the area of Devils Postpile, both the John Muir trail and the Pacific Crest Trail run through the canyon, by March it was known that thousands of trees were down over the trails and the feeder trails. A huge tree clearing operation was planned to start when the snow melted. In June around 1500 PCT through hikers would come through on their way from Mexico to Canada, the trails needed to be cleared by then.

Access to the area was difficult the road into Devil's Post Pile and Reds Meadows was clogged with trees. The logging company that was hired to clear the road took 3 million board feet of timber in 700 truckloads from about 10 miles of roads.

By the time the work was completed the Forest Service had spent about $300,000 and an additional 300,000 dollars of volunteer labor was used, that is, about 15,000 hours of volunteer labor or roughly 1,875 days of work accomplished in 3 months. 5,000 trees were cut off 300 miles of trails by a combination of chainsaws and crosscut saws, supported by mule trains heading out nearly each day with food, gear and equipment.

For years, cleanup will continue, leaners and widowmakers will continue to be cut from the trails.

This was a truly awesome and inspiring act of volunteerism done by hundreds of people who did it because they love our mountains. I think this one operation negates all the negativism done by people who really, don't do much for the land, the state, each other.

By the way, in all this, not one injury, not even a sprained ankle.

More information here: Mammoth Times

[Bulldogdad]

Before modern fire suppression mother nature would have cleaned this mess up quickly after a few years of drought and a few thousand dry lightning strikes.

Seems like humans are always creating more work for themselves than necessary, wouldn't you smoke eaters agree?

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by Bulldogdad

Before modern fire suppression mother nature would have cleaned this mess up quickly after a few years of drought and a few thousand dry lightning strikes.

Seems like humans are always creating more work for themselves than necessary, wouldn't you smoke eaters agree?

Indeed many of the weaker or diseased trees would have been taken care of. Modern fire suppression and conservation errs on the side of preservation of the individual entity rather than preserving the natural environment too often

[.highnlite]

in this case it was the good healthy trees with full cannopy that went down. the branches with full foliage acted like sails and took them down. Dead trees and trees with compromised canopies did not go down.

This was a mature forest with large trees. Typically large trunks on the ground, even dead and dry do not burn. as there is insufficient small fuel to fire them up and retain that fire.

In addition a large number of these were Red Fir. Red Fir, abies magnifica grow in belts and are often referred to as asbestos stands due to the tendency of Red Fir stands not to burn

In addition, fire in these blow downs where successful will create so much heat that they will nuke the soil inhibiting regrowth for decades.

Remember this, this blowdown occurred in a healthy mature forest with little understory. The oft told tale that modern fire suppression increases forest disease and fire hazard simply doesn't work in the Red fir forest. In the lodgepole stands, lodgepole stands are naturally thick and would appear to be susceptible to fire, but, lodgepole stands are generally found in marshy/wet meadow fringe areas because of this, natural fire is not common to the stands.

Seems like humans are always creating more work for themselves than necessary, wouldn't you smoke eaters agree?

If you want to discuss human interaction creating problems, consider fuel loading, generally expressed in tons per acre. While it is true that fire suppression can lead to overstocking and thus high fuel loads, generally that fuel loading is live trees standing. Whereas in logging the logs are limbed on site, the branches and foliage are left on the ground. The effect of this is enormous fuel loading, the canopies of entire stands are now on the ground stacked like jackstraws. Not only does logging generate huge fuel loadings, but those loads are highly resistant to control as it is nearly impossible to cut a fireline through the thousands of tons of slash strewn thickly upon the ground.

You may not see this problem if you drive through a logged forest as it is customary to leave a screen of standing trees between the road way and the logged area. In logged areas that abut travelways, the slash within 2-300 feet of the road is stacked, and burned in the fall, giving the casual passerby the appearance of a cleared area. Imagine trying to clean up or cut a fireline through the landscape in the image, and consider what a wild fire will do in this man built mess:

[DMenscha]

My last job with the USFS was supervisor of what was euphemistically called the Brush Disposal crew. Our mission, to go into a logged area like the one pictured above and cut everything into smaller pieces with nothing left standing more than 18 inches high or 2 feet in length in preparation for broadcast burning in the season following the "treatment". The following season after the burning reforestation was supposed to occur.

I took my wife and my son on a tour of the area I had worked in 15 years later, It looked the same as when we had been there. Nice job FS!

We were on the northern edge of that storm and it was quite impressive how many trees were blown over, including a dozen that fell on homes.

[Senno]

I wonder if this winds from the east that blew the trees down is somehow related to the inside slider type storms that seem to have become more common in recent years? Weathers changing a bit.

[bigdumbgod]

Even worse than this!

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by DMenscha

My last job with the USFS was supervisor of what was euphemistically called the Brush Disposal crew. Our mission, to go into a logged area like the one pictured above and cut everything into smaller pieces with nothing left standing more than 18 inches high or 2 feet in length in preparation for broadcast burning in the season following the "treatment". The following season after the burning reforestation was supposed to occur.

I took my wife and my son on a tour of the area I had worked in 15 years later, It looked the same as when we had been there. Nice job FS!

We were on the northern edge of that storm and it was quite impressive how many trees were blown over, including a dozen that fell on homes.

So your area caught a bit of it too,, interesting. My friend in Mammoth said that they noticed nothing out of the ordinary there, yet just a few miles west,, kabooommm! There's the result of katabatic winds for you....