This Northern California community is planting trees after wildfire destroyed the forest
A Plumas County community will gather on June 3 to help heal burn scarred land in the Warner Valley, six to 12 miles north of Chester.
They hope to plant more than 2,000 native trees on private property affected by the three-month-long Dixie Fire in 2021.
It’s a labor of love for those who watched the fire destroy forestland and their rural communities, according to Matt Barton, a Warner Valley resident and spokesperson for the Friends of Warner Valley community group, which represents private property owners in the valley.
The valley flanks Lassen Volcanic National Park in Plumas and Lassen counties, where the Cascade Mountain range and the Sierra Nevada mountain range meet. The area is “a wildlife migration corridor" for animals with north-south and east-west migration patterns, Barton said.
Conservation organizations ― the Feather River Conservation District, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the National Parks Service and others ― will give Friends of Warner Valley volunteers a hand with this and future restoration projects, he said. They're training them, providing equipment or looping them in on larger scale plans to restore the valley.
But the challenge to restore the burn scar is daunting.
Parts of the valley burned at "high or extreme” temperatures, destroying more than half the privately-owned homes in the valley, Barton said. “Our own small property was heavily impacted. About 40% of the trees were killed. Fortunately, we didn’t lose our cabin. Directly north of us, about 50 yards from our front door, everything burned, and many neighbors lost cabins which had been in their families for generations," said Barton.
More: Cal Fire explains: Why Dixie Fire is not the 'largest single wildfire' in California history
Between July 13 and Oct. 14, 2021, the Dixie Fire burned 963,309 acres of wilderness and rural communities in Butte, Plumas, Shasta, Lassen and Tehama counties, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Areas hardest hit were in Lassen County, including Lassen Park; and Plumas County, where the fire flattened most of the small town of Greenville on Highway 89, nine miles east-southeast of Lake Almanor.
The fire also burned 73,240 acres of Lassen Volcanic National Park's 106,452 acres, about 68% of the park, according to the park's Acting Chief of Interpretation and Education Sierra Coon and destroyed the historic Mount Harkness Lookout near Juniper Lake.
The fire “destroyed large stands of timber which shaded and preserved" the mountain snowpack and made the snow melt slower through summer, Barton said. That means more water early in the summer and less later for the wildlife and communities that depend on it.
Next year, Barton said he hopes to recruit volunteers around the North State to help with June tree plantings and other restoration efforts.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Plumas County, California is planting trees in Dixie Fire burn scars
