Walk with a Forester #3 – Butte Creek Canyon
September 10, 2024
Approximately 30 residents from around Butte County and beyond gathered in the shade of live oaks near Butte Creek to share in conversations with the two Registered Professional Foresters, Kieran O’Leary, of the BCFSC and Rhianna Dutra, of the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve. Participants included CAL FIRE, residents from Butte Creek Canyon, Forest Ranch, Paradise, Chico and Butte Valley, Resource Conservation District staff, and members of the Butte County Collaborative Group. Read on for a snapshot of what was shared that day.
Our first stop was at the Butte Creek Ecological Preserve (BCEP), where our foresters explained the Mechoopda Tribal Crew’s various cultural objectives for the land. Rhianna, who has been working in tandem land management projects with local tribes, described the differences and details of prescribed fire, cultural fire, and biochar production for soil development. Despite its decimation in the 2008 Humboldt and 2018 Camp Fire, the land was teeming with vegetation and wildlife thanks to their efforts.
“The land must be managed; it can’t be left alone. If we don’t manage it, then nature will find a way… which is often in the form of a wildfire.”
-Rhianna Dutra, Forester of the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER)
Our group carpooled to the next stop, where we visited the site of the historic Honey Run Covered Bridge. At this location, our foresters highlighted the ecology of grass oak woodland and chaparral environments and the role that fire plays in keeping these ecosystems healthy. Participants ruminated on the how poor land management in the 20th century led to the intensification of wildfires in recent decades and how their communities responded to the latest Centerville Fire incident.
“When I began my career in forestry over 30 years ago, a large catastrophic wildfire was something like the Fountain Fire of 1992, which burned 60,000 acres. Now we have wildfires that are a million acres, like the Dixie Fire. It’s time to start doing something different.”
-Kieran O’Leary, Forester of the Butte County Fire Safe Council (BCFSC)
The third location along our drive was at the property of Butte Creek Canyon landowner, just down the street, where he served as a guest speaker and attested to the benefits of maintaining a defensible space around one’s home and the importance of building wildfire-prepared communities. This landowner frequently takes advantage of the BCFSC’s No-Cost Chipper Program, in which community members can cut and stack the fire-hazardous vegetation that they want to remove from their property, and BCFSC coordinates for a chipper and crew to visit and break up the material for easier distribution of wood chips. Participants discussed the importance of fire-wise tactics such as tree-limbing up to 12′ from the ground and trimming overgrown bushes, and how wildfire preparedness on the landowner’s part can be a huge help to firefighters when they are defending our homes.
“Working to create defensible space and a fire-safe forest in steep areas like Butte Creek Canyon is… like trying to sweep the ocean back with a broom. We rely on the residents in the Wildland Urban Interface to do their part to keep their homes and driveways safe so that firefighters have a chance.”
-Dave Derby, Unit Forester with CAL FIRE
We finished our journey through Butte Creek Canyon at the Colman Museum and Historic Centerville Schoolhouse. Kieran O’Leary described the process of identifying, marking, and protecting archeology sites in a land like the Butte Creek Canyon, which experienced a lot of human activity and environmental degradation during the gold rush era. Identifying these historic and cultural sites is a crucial step in BCFSC’s wildfire mitigation efforts to qualify for and receive the state funding needed for these community resilience projects.
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us on this beautiful day, and to Kieran and Rhianna for sharing your knowledge!
Walk with a Forester is a quarterly event, hosted by the Butte County Fire Safe Council. To learn about upcoming events and activities, visit our website’s Events Page.
Follow us on Facebook for more event announcements and our next Walk with a Forester, headed to Clipper Mills in November 2024.