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TEN YEARS LATER: Remembering the Mothers' Day - Tam Fire, May 9, 2004
Restoration and community preparedness after a wildfire in a eucalyptus grove at Golden Gate NRA...
"More than 150 firefighters from throughout the North Bay scrambled to protect homes, and nervous residents gathered up pets and priceless belongings Sunday as the first big local fire of the season burned through dense eucalyptus groves and perilously close to a neighborhood near Mill Valley. Firefighters spent almost five hours surrounding the fire, which blackened about 35 acres* near Highway 1 and brought traffic to a halt as authorities closed several roads to keep them clear for firefighters..." (Delfin Vigil and Demian Bulwa, San Francisco Chronicle)
"Rob Fisher's house at 621 Eucalyptus Way was about 100 yards from the fire....Fisher explained that he and his wife drove their 12-year old son to a friend's house immediately after the fire started... Fisher, a psychiatry professor at John F. Kennedy University returned home but was in constant contact with firefighters in case evacuations were ordered. He said the family car was packed with clothes and items including soccer trophies, family photos, and videos, and his teaching notes. Those notes represent thousands of hours of work he said..." (Tad Whitaker, Marin Independent Journal)
*NOTE: The size of the fire was estimated to be 35 acres while firefighting was in progress. The actual final size was later determined to be 12 acres when the fire area was more accurately mapped.
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Fuel Reduction in the Wildland Urban-Interface
Fortunately, the 2001 National Fire Plan had provided increased funding for fuel reduction in the wildland-urban interface. A series of projects on GGNRA land near the Tam Fire site helped make it easier to control the Tam Fire quickly.
GGNRA completed the following projects in Tamalpais Valley in 2003:
* Eucalyptus trees were removed along Shoreline Highway to limit grove expansion and improve road safety for emergency response and evacuation.
* Eucalyptus and broom were also thinned near Erica Road to improve road safety for emergency response and evacuation.
* Eucalyptus trees were removed at the entrance to the Miwok Fire Road to improve emergency access; to create a strategic fuel break where fire would be easier to control; and to reduce fuel where the potential for human-caused fire is high.
* Eucalyptus trees were removed to restore a fire road connecting Shoreline Highway with Eastwood Road to improve emergency access and create an additional escape route for residents in Tamalpais Valley.
More...
TOP BANNER PHOTO: Smoke rising above Tamalpais Valley on Mothers' Day, May 9, 2004, as seen from south of the Tam Fire in Marin County.
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Jim Kasper, a homeowner who was affected by the fire; Maria Alvarez, a plant ecologist with Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA); and Liz Ponzini, plant nursery manager and field coordinator with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (GGNPC), have been working together on the Tam Fire Site and related vegetation management projects over the years. Here are their reflections on the 10-Year Anniversary of the fire:
Jim Kasper, Tam Valley Resident
The
most important thing about the fire is realizing the need to be prepared....knowing your evacuation route, having defensible space around your home. Since the fire, I've also learned more about all the non-native trees that were planted when the area was developed, including lots of Monterey pine and Monterey cypress for screening along the property lines. I found an interview of a woman whose father planted thousands of eucalyptus trees on the ridge. Based on the number of trees planted, it must have been for commercial lumber value not just a wind break.
Lessons Learned?
1) The fire burned really hot early in the season. The ground was white, everything was consumed...the good news is that a lot of native plants came back on their own.
2) Some amount of thinning in the eucalyptus makes a lot of sense, similar to what was done at the top of Smith Road and Marin Drive. It looks healthier when you can see through it, and it's safer from a fire point of view.
3) Ideally, the restoration work after the trees were cut would have happened faster. For awhile, people complained that it looked like a moonscape. Using the Habitat Restoration Team model, there needed to be more promotion to get more volunteers working on the site sooner.
Do you do anything different as a result of the fire?
Kent Julin from Marin County Fire Department encouraged me to apply for a fire safe grant. I applied on behalf of my neighborhood, Muir Meadows and found out that a grant for a different project in Muir Meadows was also submitted. Since that one got approved, I ended up working on that project which involved overgrown, undeveloped parcels near Trilium Lane. I applied for another grant on behalf of TCSD (Tamalpais Community Services District), and we received $165,000. Southern Marin Fire District helped identify priority areas for that funding; we also had a $10,000 grant to identify hazards from Sudden Oak Death and some of those trees were removed too. Lately, I'm helping to manage TCSD's neighborhood chipper days, and assisting Fire Safe Marin with a county-wide chipping program that received a grant from the California Fire Safe Council this year.
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Maria Alvarez, GGNRA Restoration Ecologist
The fire burned through a grove of mature dense eucalyptus trees near the park boundary, not far from a residential community near Eastwood Park. Within the first two years, the park had cleared 12 acres of damaged trees which were a hazard for anyone walking or driving along the access road that goes through the burned area. Very little native vegetation was left...even most of the native oaks and bays had been burned to the ground. In 2006, we started to grow native plants in the greehouse for the site. In 2007, work began with the Habitat Restoration Team (HRT), one of the parks longest running volunteer programs. By 2008, we had developed a detailed Tam Fire Site Restoration Plan which included planting on a large scale, installing irrigation and paid crews to control the re-sprouting eucalyptus trees. Funding was sought, but was not available to initiate a project to speed up the recovery of the landscape. In the meantime suckers sprouted everywhere off the cut trees and within two years they were already 9 feet tall. Thousands of invasive French broom plants became established, and thousands of eucalyptus tree seedlings began to sprout.
Armed with weed wrenches and determination, HRT volunteers, including local neighbors, have come back quarterly to pull and cut back the non-native shrubs and trees and plant thousands of native herbs, shrubs, and trees to restore the site. The transformation has been remarkable!
Lessons Learned?
1) The right kind of stump treatment after cutting eucalyptus is the key to preventing abundant resprouting.
2) More browse protection would have benefitted the native plants that were coming back on their own. We used browse protection on all the trees we planted to keep mammals from feeding on them, but we could have also added protection for all the native plants that were resprouting or germinating from the existing seed bank. We couldn't do this because of the cost.
3) At least one supplemental watering during the summer was critical to getting native oaks and bays to establish after they were planted.
4) Native blackberries are the one species that has come roaring back without our assistance in several areas at the site. They also provide cover for native mammals and thistle control. It was also amazing to see individual lupine, toyon, and other shrubs come back on their own through a thick layer of eucalyptus chips.
Wish List?
It would be great to have more participation by local residents in weekly HRT events. In the vicinity of Homestead / Tamalpais Valley alone, HRT works at six or more locations which means HRT is working in this area at least once each month.
If funding was no issue, we would hire a tree crew to cut the acre and a half of eucalyptus resprouts that are up in the drainage on a steep slope which are not possible for volunteers to manage.
We would also fix the dirt road leading up from Eastwood park all the way to the top of the ridge which is deeply rutted, and difficult to drive on.This would make it easier and safer to bring water in to water the trees in the summer.
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Liz Ponzini, GGNPC Nursery Manager
How many hours have volunteers contributed to the site since 2007?
Approximately 2,250...
How many native plants have been planted at the site since 2007?
We're up to 8,560 so far...
Over eight seasons from March 2007 through February 2014, we've planted 8,560 plants at the Tam Fire site. Of this total, 206 have been oak trees and 85 have been California bays. There's a long list of other plants too, including willow, cow parsnip, common rush, yarrow, blue wild rye and yellow-eyed grass just to name a few....We monitor the plantings one year later, and overall plant survivor-ship averages about 80%.
We also attempted to direct sow 1,500 acorns (from a bumper crop in the fall) in late January 2008, with very little success. Some were seen to germinate, but not very many and we can't say how many in total established. It was a dry spring, which probably had a negative impact.
Our last volunteer work day was on January 19, 2014. The winter drought conditions limited our planting options, but we still planted 119 natives that day. We also removed 2,000 invasive broom plants. Broom is incredibly competetive. If we don't keep up with it, it will take over...
Volunteers planting native plants at the Tam Fire Site in 2012
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NEWS ARCHIVES: Tam Fire Headlines
(San Francisco Chronicle, May 10, 2004)
Close Call in Mill Valley
(Marin Independent Journal, May 10, 2004)
Campsite Found at Fire Center
(Marin Independent Journal, May 11, 2004)
Eucalyptus Tree Removal Riles Tamalpais Valley
(Marin Independent Journal, May 13, 2008)
Residents Will Get Voice in Tam Valley Eucalyptus Plan
(Marin Independent Journal, December 7, 2008)
Tam Valley Lands Fire Safety Grant
(Marinscope, July 14, 2010)
Tam Valley Surveys Infected Oaks
(Marinscope, July 28, 2010)
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Upcoming Events
Celebrate Mothers' Day at the Tam Fire Site!
MAY 11, 2014 - TAM FIRE SITE RESTORATION WORK DAY!, Tamalpais Valley, CA - Join the Habitat Restoration Team in the ongoing effort to restore the fire site to a native oak woodland. Volunteers will be pulling invasive broom plants from the slope to protect the native plants that are getting estabalished. A variety of hardwood trees planted in February will also be watered. The work day is 9:30 am to 2:30 pm -- but it's ok to arrive late or leave early! Meet at Eastwood Park and head up the fire road. More...
TAM FIRE SITE TOURS - 45 minute tours will be given at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm during the work day on Sunday, May 11, or another time on request. Call 415-464-5133 for scheduling.
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Where is the Tam Fire Site?
It's a short walk from Eastwood Park. You more or less go right past it when driving to Muir Woods or Muir Beach via Highway 1. It's on your left near the intersection with Panoramic Highway, although it isn't visible from the road...
It's a MUST SEE for anyone interested in Habitat Restoration!
Blue = 2003 Fuel Removal
Red = Tam Fire Perimeter
Green = GGNRA Boundary
Sincerely,
Jennifer Chapman
Fire Communication and Education Specialist
S.F. Bay Area National Parks
415-464-5133 TEL
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