The everyday heroes behind the reopening of Guerneville’s Armstrong Redwoods
As I write this story, my little house in the redwoods is powered by my emergency generator. The power’s been out all day, and we’re all waiting for the floods. Yet at the same time I’m totally in love with the sound of the rain. Even the intense drone of the generator — certainly the epitome of a symbol of human’s drive to “overcome” nature —cannot overpower the symphony of the rain and wind. It feels like a perfect way to write a story about the reopening of our beloved Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. A treasured refuge for generations of people — even as we continue our seemingly unstoppable encroachment on the very nature we cherish — and that many incredibly dedicated humans are trying to protect.
I’m going to introduce you to a few of them here. And when you return to Armstrong Redwoods, I hope that every time you have one of those amazing deep Ahhhhhhh moments, that you’ll share some of that in your heart with these folks. Because without them, you and I would still be waiting to return.
Earlier in the week I had the profound honor of being given a tour of the Armstrong grove trails by Andrew Scott, who is Volunteer Programs Manager with Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods. Stewards is a nonprofit that partners with the Russian River sector of California State Parks to promote, restore and protect the natural and cultural resources in Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, Austin Creek State Recreation Area, and Sonoma Coast State Park from Bodega Bay to Jenner.
Since I live less than 10 minutes away, Armstrong has been my sanctuary, my reconnect, one of the truly holy places in my world. The depth of the silence, the smell of our first real rain of the year from just the day before... Andrew took me on a tour through the entire grove that will be opening to the public hopefully by the time you read this. What was the most stunning to me was how GREAT it all looked—especially the areas that clearly had burned. In the 15 months since the Walbridge fire, the forest floor is exquisitely alive with new growth. Everywhere!
And what was equally as stunning was to see the dichotomy between the hillsides along the trails, where the fire was allowed to do what fires have done forever—and the interior sides of the trails where the dense cover and gorgeous cacophony of growth we were all so used to seeing as the “forest floor” suddenly looked to me like a burn pile waiting to happen...
“A fire has different personalities based on so many different factors: terrain, fuels, humidity—weather is a big part of it. The Walbridge fire burned over several weeks, and so the character of that fire was all over the place. But there’s a good story behind this fire because there’s a happy ending for Armstrong Redwoods.” Brendan O'Neil is the Senior Environmental Scientist for California State Parks, and the overall Project Manager of Natural Resources overseeing the Sonoma-Mendocino Coast District which includes 23 parks. “The first initial days we had some pretty aggressive fire behavior in the back country of Austin Creek. As those fires go up-slope (known as a “head fire”) they burn hotter and pre-heat the fuels in front of them with greater intensity. By Day 3, there were 150-ft. flames on McCray Ridge consuming whole trees. It came through Bullfrog Pond and cooked most of that area. As it backed down the hill into Armstrong (known as a “backing fire” is when it heads downhill), it began to calm down and we began to figure out a strategy. For the first three days, we had high temperatures and low humidity which definitely increased the fire behavior—but as the fire moved up and down McCray Ridge and then down into the park, temperatures decreased, and humidity increased. We had winds coming up Armstrong valley and a backing fire with wind pushing it back up the hill, so we really had only 6-inch flames coming into the park” making the situation more manageable for the team.