Kimberly Watson

Atmo-1010
Professor Mallia
April 28, 2019

The lasting effects of wildfires

The topic for this project is one that I feel most of us, including myself, tend to put out of

our minds throughout the Fall, Winter, and Early Spring. In fact, it usually is not until wildfires

start popping up on news channels here locally in Utah that I personally take notice and start to

concern myself with the victims and the effects that the wildfires cause as the incinerate

everything living or not in their path of terror and destruction. For some reason, it is not until we

acknowledge the suffering felt by others as a result of these disasters, especially if we find them

to be a result of human action, that we as a society take notice. And I am no exception to this rule

as I recently found through an eye-opening experience that I encountered at my place of

employment.

As a later in life student who has been a part of the workforce now going on two decades.

My ambition to further my education is not motivated by hopes of changing career paths or even

starting a new endeavor. Instead, I consider myself fortunate because I truly love what I do. Still,

as a mother of two teenagers at home, one who will be turning 17yrs of age this June, I know the

importance of a college education. It is because of this that I have chosen to finish my education

while working as an operations manager for one of the local Cheesecake Factory’s nearby. And

it was there just this last November that I ran into a group of ladies that forever touched my heart

as a result of their resilience, courage, and loyalty to their friendships.

The above-mentioned ladies came into my establishment right at the beginning of our

lunch service requesting a large table for their party. Unfortunately, we have a policy that we

cannot sit large parties until the majority of the people are physically in the restaurant. When I
relayed this policy to the group I was quickly pulled aside by a cute silver haired lady that

somewhat reminded myself of my own grandmother. It became evident really quick that there

was a dark cloud hanging over this group.

She went on to explain to me that they were survivors and prior residents of the

community called Paradise, California. After being displaced due to a wildfire they we re-uniting

one year to the day here in Utah in hopes of reconnecting and mourning the loss of their dear

friends that they lost. They were hoping to have in the realms of thirty people to their group yet

only twelve had been confirmed. Adding to the complication, they also were not sure what time

everybody would be arriving because they were all coming in at different times which created a

problem in itself due to our high-volume sales and need for space.

Still, after listening to this lady’s story, and recognizing the importance of their situation

even though I was not completely aware of the nightmare that their community went through. I

made the accommodation for this group to have a table large enough to seat 20 people. With the

ability to pull additional tables over if needed. Needless to say, unfortunately those addition seats

were not needed. Only 17 prior residents of that town showed up this day. Which made the fact

that there were three empty seats left at the table more than a coincidence to these ladies. Reason

being as they explained through their tears. They, as many, lost more than their homes, they lost

three of their dearest friends to the fires. It was heartbreaking to hear and I felt guilty that I was

not completely educated on the tragedy that they experienced. Something I remedied shortly

after I met these survivors.

What I found after making a quick google search of the fire they described only added to

the guilt I felt by not being more aware of this disaster. It turns out the fire in discussion was

more than just a normal wildfire. The “Camp Fire” fire turned out to be one of the planets most
devasting fires to date. And it was California’s largest and most deadly fire in the State’s history.

In addition to that accolade. You would have to go all the way back to 1918 with the Cloqet fire

before you would find another as deadly. And even then, you would only find in our country’s

history five other times that a fire has taken as many lives as this fire did in 2018.

Getting its namesake from its place of conception Camp Creek Road. It was first reported

on November 8th, 2018 in Butte County, located in the northern region of California. The first

town to be affected by extreme fire behaviors was Concow. From there a firestorm began at the

foothills of the community of Paradise and it quickly spun out of control. During its tirade this

fire killed at least 85 civilians with their being 3 people still missing to date. It injured numerous

civilians and firefighters during the time that it traveled an area of 153,336 acres, which equates

to over 240 square miles. This fire destroyed 18,804 buildings and dwellings with most of the

damage happening within the first few hours. When all was said and done, the total amount lost

hit $16.5 Billion, with a quarter of that not being insured. All this destruction and mayhem took

over two and a half weeks to contain with the fire coming to an end on November 25th, 2018.

(CNBC, 2018)

In an article published in Physics Today titled, Western US wildfires in an increasingly

warming climate, they discuss research suggesting the increase of wildfires due to climate

change and an increase in global fire activity. (Mallia, 2016) It further went on to discuss a 2014

study by Phillip Dennison at the University of Utah that determined the frequency of large fires

increased across seven of nine western US ecoregions. (Dennison, 2014) While both articles

effectively and thoroughly explain their predictions what I found to be the most intriguing is that

all this data was pulled before 2016, and now being in 2019, unfortunately we are seeing those

predictions come to fruition with wildfire instances continuing to increase.

 As we know and as mentioned above wildfires cause obvious destruction and harm in

their immediate happenings, however, it is not often as frequently discussed, the long-term

effects that wildfires can have on the environment and ecosystems within. According to an

article published by the Utah Division of Wildlife Services, biologists are still seeing the effects

of last years wildfires on fish, wildlife, and their habitat areas. With nearly 486,000 acres burned

in Utah last year, in 1,314 separate wildfires, and then taking into consideration a heavy

snowpack, they are saying that the upcoming spring runoff in is these burn scar areas has the

potential for severe erosion and that it can take anywhere from 3 to 5 years for those areas to

completely heal. One specific effect that was noted is how without the vegetation, the rain and

spring runoff allows all the debris to flood the rivers, making them inhabitable for fish. I also

found it interesting that there is a difference in impact to wildlife habitats depending on if the fire

is a high or low elevation fire. For example, the article noted this statement regarding a high-

elevation fire, “The wildlife will move to other areas during a fire, but they return when the

grasses and forbs begin to grow back,”. However, with a low-elevation fire, the sagebrush and

grasses that are burned do not recover as quickly. This can result in a negative impact for deer

and elk during the winter months after these fires. (Services, 2019)