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Did you know California used to have an 800-mile-long firebreak?
Seriously.
The story of the Ponderosa Way: Built during the Depression, the massive break was built from Shasta Lake to Bakersfield to protect timber.
I looked at its history & lessons
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
Seriously.
The story of the Ponderosa Way: Built during the Depression, the massive break was built from Shasta Lake to Bakersfield to protect timber.
I looked at its history & lessons
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
Chances are if you live in the foothills you have a road called Ponderosa Way & that likely is a remnant of the “Mother of All Firebreaks”.
Much has been reclaimed by nature, but Cal Fire still uses stretches of the historic break to this day.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
Much has been reclaimed by nature, but Cal Fire still uses stretches of the historic break to this day.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
There’s very little documentation of the firebreak. But I found letters from the California State Archives where fire chiefs had to send updates to the US Forest Service after each fire season describing how it fared
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
A stretch of the Ponderosa Way ran through Paradise and Butte County.
@gabriellelurie & I visited with a man who’s spent decades trying to revive a section of the orphaned firebreak, but no agency wants to shell out the $$$ to maintain it.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
@gabriellelurie & I visited with a man who’s spent decades trying to revive a section of the orphaned firebreak, but no agency wants to shell out the $$$ to maintain it.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
Firebreaks predate the Forest Service & provide critical firefighting tool. As part of Gov. Newsom’s recent funding of 35 firebreaks, some included old stretches of Ponderosa Way.
John Blanchard & Mike Massa created this interactive graphic on firebreaks https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2020/fighting-fires-techniques
John Blanchard & Mike Massa created this interactive graphic on firebreaks https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2020/fighting-fires-techniques
In the end, the Ponderosa Way was abandoned. Fire historian @StephenJPyne wrote about man’s relationship w firebreaks:
“Those walls are, in the end, the lines of negotiation between a nature that doesn’t care and a society that doesn’t want to worry.” https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
“Those walls are, in the end, the lines of negotiation between a nature that doesn’t care and a society that doesn’t want to worry.” https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
At same time they chopped down trees & brush to build Ponderosa Way firebreak, the CCC did the reverse in the Great Plains.
220 million trees were planted stretching 18,600 miles to create the Shelterbelt, a windbreak to help prevent another Dust Bowl.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
220 million trees were planted stretching 18,600 miles to create the Shelterbelt, a windbreak to help prevent another Dust Bowl.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
Back in the '30s, California had an insect infestation issue w/ trees like now. CCC crews building Ponderosa Way firebreak would cut down dead trees and the wood was used to build benches for Yosemite National Park. https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/An-800-mile-firebreak-once-protected-15713546.php
