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Yeah, I don't see a problem with burning piles of leaves and branches in the woods.
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That's a strange thing to do to worm food. But I guess there aren't many worms in California to drag the leaves into the soil.
I wonder if the place always burned at the end of summer, or whether the immigrants and refugees who took over the place planted the wrong kind of trees (like the eucalyptus I saw a lot of over there)?
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the eucalypts came to this continent from Asia a long time ago. Before that there was a very rich forest and now it is 'home among the gum trees' (line from Australian song) and vulnerable to bushfires. I have seen it happen, from a distance, you don't forget the sight of a big tree exploding into flame and in minutes it is dropping burning branches into the valley.
and there where it is still rainforest it doesn't ignite. phew.
In the drought and fire season last year I had to stop watering my garden a lot but I didn't stop watering the compost piles, I had stopped seeing them as compost and viewed them as fuel load. and then the fire season was over and I am getting in the garden again and dig down in the pile closest to the house and it looked dry and branches on the surface but underneath it was moist and composting and full of worms. I love my worms. It's this thing and I still have my worm farm and feel guilty for keeping them in slavery but like having the ability to go get a handful for here or there. Isn't it awful, I have to dismantle that farm!
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Indeed, there are many worthless eucalyptus trees in California. Although, I do like the Dr. Bronner eucalyptus/hemp liquid soap. I believe they thought that the eucalyptus trees could be used for railroad ties, which they cannot. Most of the trees in the areas that are burning are either ancient redwoods or oaks that might a couple of hundred years old. Of course, the redwoods are way older and they actually might survive the fire. While the woods are thick, there's a lot of 'empty' open areas that have chest high dried grasses that burn like crazy. Along the park by a creek where I hike, every summer the park people bring in hundreds of sheep and goats to eat down the tall dried grasses. It's pretty cool to see the Australian border collies marshall those sheep and goats. Anyway, there was a fire that started in a grassy area that had just been eaten down to nubs by the sheep and the goats. I think a model airplane crashed and burned. It was a very windy day. In fact, it was so windy that I cut my hike short. The fire ran across the grass nubs and into and across the creek burning some sycamore trees and eventually killing 4 horses before the fire was brought under control. Here's some pictures of the burned area that had been eaten down to nubs.
(first picture has burnt goat turds)
Modified by eDrek at Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 15:00:46
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Maybe goats is the answer! And if it goes wrong, you got a barbecue. 
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It's interesting - the use of goats.
I know that in Washington State in the Olympic National Park the Park Service spent a lot of time and money helicoptering wild goats out of the park. Not sure, why. Maybe because they were non-native.
But, yeah, goats could reduce the fires if they foraged on the wild grasses, but I'm sure there's a problem with that just like the whole silly idea from Trump to 'clean the floors' is completely out of touch from reality. My guess is the only outdoors Trump has ever seen is a from a golf cart.
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The problem with your unrestrained goat use is that they eat everything including all the potential regrowth before it can establish itself. Over centuries this degrades the land. It's the main cause of agricultural poverty in the Middle East, not to mention conflict between goat & non-goat segments of the population.
Transhumance & settled agriculture are impossible to reconcile.
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Olympic National Park goats to new home is underway
The article is quite interesting. The crazy part is where the goats are not afraid of people and the goats have no other source of salt except to lick the skin of humans. A guy hiking was gored to death.Yeah, the goats gotta go! And they're not going to be able to catch them all for relocation, so the rest get shot.
Here's some of the juicy quotes:
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Deer and mountain lions then, to keep the deer numbers in check. I guess that's how it used to be.
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To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along
"When Western settlers forcibly removed tribes from their land and banned religious ceremonies, cultural burning largely disappeared. Instead, state and federal authorities focused on swiftly extinguishing wildfires. But fire suppression has only made California's wildfire risk worse. Without regular burns, the landscape grew thick with vegetation that dries out every summer, creating kindling for the fires that have recently destroyed California communities. Climate change and warming temperatures make those landscapes even more fire-prone."
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that was a really interesting article, thanks Karen, it is a subject I have thought about a lot in terms of Australia and I didn't know there was a similar background in California.
The main thing we do here is back burning - the aborigines used to start fires too and I think they were instrumental in starting the practise. the modern idea is to create fuel-free corridors around settled areas where hopefully the fire can't jump over. It does help and has been happening for quite some time. Though sometimes a fire starts from a back burn that goes out of control.
Banksias are one of my favourite trees and they are one of the native plant species which do well out of fire because they germinate well afterwards, the seeds of some species simply will not germinate without fire. But it is devastating for many other species.
So you know I wonder. I've been in one of the remnants of prehistoric bush. It is a memorable feeling difficult to put words to but wonderful being in a place where everything has evolved into a balancing tapestry, so much you can sense it.
And then I find out about the eucalypts being an invasive species and I wonder if they haven't been so successful just because they are so flammable.
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for some reason I can't post a reply directly below it so here I am - I was impressed with the woman who spoke. She conveyed a lot of information, and a lot of what she said echoed what is happening here - the good land management sense of the aborigines gets overridden by stupid destructive business aspirations.
but I have to say I was surprised, for some reason I had thought the native people of America were treated better than here but no - we had it better here, with National Parks management being largely taken over by people native to that area and it was something we all benefited from, my favourite camping spot was like that and we had such a good time there, with piles of wood ready for building a fire and so on and friendly people and then the council steps in and wants to charge extra fees and takes over the management and the native rangers have gone and it's all horrible and not friendly any more.
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https://www.risingupwithsonali.com/2020/08/26/how-indigenous-knowledge-can-inform-californias-wildfires/
Link to video interview .
Listen to story:Download: mp3 (Duration: 24:22 — 22.3MB) FEATURING ALI MEDERS-KNIGHT – Massive and devastating wildfires in California have become a summer-time norm and this summer’s out-of-control complex of fires in the northern part of the state came at the same time as a viral pandemic that strikes the lungs and was largely sparked by lightning not humans. Between the fire-devastation, smoke inhalation, soaring temperatures, and fear of infection, Californians are suffering with so solutions in sight. Except that there are potential solutions to the wildfires and some of them are being offered by indigenous groups whose ancestors have lived on these lands for generations and know intimately how fire can be a necessary part of ecological change. For more information visit www.tekchico.org. Ali Meders-Knight is a Mechoopda tribal member based in Chico, CA and a Tribal liaison helping form partnerships for federal forest stewardship contracting and tribal forestry programs authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill. She has been a Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) practitioner for over 20 years, collaborating on environmental education and land restoration projects with Chico State University and the City of Chico.
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