Diary 5/16/13

We have been slowly eradicating scotch broom, these lovely yellow bushes, from our hill.  I don't know if we can ever get ahead of them by the creekbed, but here by the house, they stick out and are growing in rocky areas where chopping them out is enough to set them back substantially. This strip of them has been advancing as we have thinned the trees and made a "defensible space". This is probably our least defend

ible side. See the dead  branches hanging down from the firs?  Big no-no.  That and the bushes all around become "ladder fuels" that carry a fire from a slower ground fire up into the trees , "crowning"  into a serious wind driven event.  Seen it, didn't like it, trying to be ready for the next time, because there will be a next time. It is the natural disaster of this area.  Just as other parts of the country have tornadoes, we have wildfires. Well and volcanoes, but we hope we are not witness to that.