This fire started 33 years ago. The recovery project to salvage log afterwards was more intense than trying to suppress all the fires around the Silver Fire, including the Galice, Longwood and others I don't remember the names of.
THE SILVER FIRE
In the late
summer of 1987 a dry lightning storm moved across northwestern California and
southwest Oregon. It had been a dry hot
summer and fires were reported all across the Klamath National Forest in
California and the Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon. Fire crews were dispatched to many of the
communities in the Illinois Valley to protect life and property from what was called
the Longwood Fire. With many other fires
burning across the west there was a lack of resources to cover all the
fires. There was no major initial
attack on fires burning in the back country.
This included much of the roadless area east of the Illinois River in
the Indigo and Silver Creek drainages. The only initial attack on what was called the
Silver Fire was smoke jumpers being dropped into the fire area. They
no sooner landed then they had to hike out because of safety concerns as the
fire exploded out of the Silver Creek drainage into the Indigo Creek watershed. The use of aircraft was limited due to all
the smoke.
Many of us
non-fire District personnel and Zone 2 engineering people from Gold Beach were
sent to the Longwood fire camp near Cave Junction to provide support in the
transportation section. We spent two
weeks driving trucks, delivering supplies, fire tools, lunches and water to
crews on the fire lines. Due to a lack
of vehicles the Forest Service even rented U-Haul trucks. We used many of these trucks to move
equipment and supplies to a spike camp being set up at Bear Camp. The
National Guard was also helping out, but their Humvees were so wide it was hard
to get by them on some of the narrow forest roads.
During our
entire stay there we never saw the sun because of the dense smoke. All we could see was an orange ball during
the day. Some residents near the community
of Takilma were desperate for fire suppression help to save their crop of marijuana. At times we could get a smell of it burning
along some of the roads through that area.
In short many of these fires burned until the Fall rains arrived and
extinguished them.
Then came
the recovery project. Before the smoke even settled Congress was
putting pressure on the Forest Service to estimate the amount of timber that
might be available for sale. In many
ways, mostly through lobbyists, it was the timber industry wanting to gain
access to the timber in the roadless area since the environmental community had
been fighting to keep it roadless for years.
Foresters and engineers were detailed in from other Regions to help out
with the planning and layout of these salvage sales. I
ended up working with a forester from Montana surveying the burned timber in
the Indigo Creek drainage. This
involved hiking from the end of an existing road coming in from the north off
the Burnt Ridge Road. We spent days
hiking through large stands of old growth forest that had been completely
burned. These were some of the biggest
Douglas-fir trees I have ever seen. In
places we estimated 80 to 100 thousand board feet per acre. That would be equivalent to 10 to 15 truck
loads per acre of mostly three log loads.
Crossing Indigo Creek involved
using a bosun’s chair rigged on a cable crossing the stream. As winter storms started arriving it was common
to hear the falling of burned trees off in the distance. A camp consisting of some wall tents, cots,
sleeping bags, cooking stoves and utensils was set up on a flat between Indigo
Creek and the Silver Peak ridge for timber and engineering crews to stay at
while working long periods of time locating unit boundaries and proposed road
locations. During a period of time when the camp was not
used bears invaded the camp helping themselves to some food and dragging the
sleeping bags from the tents and using them for beds. They did very little damage.
Engineers
surveyed different proposed road locations and a possible sites for
constructing a bridge crossing of Indigo Creek. They concluded it would very expensive,
involving full bench construction due to the steep side slopes. Over time environmental groups, such as
Earth First, became aware of what was happening on the ground and when Forest
Service personnel were not in the vicinity they would remove flagging used to
locate unit boundaries and road locations.
Some logging equipment on a nearby Forest Service timber sale was
sabotaged by this group doing much damage to their yarder by putting gravel in
the transmission. The logger was
allowed to put up a gate with a combination Forest Service lock and his
lock. He also wanted to put killer dogs
on the sale area which was not agreeable with the Forest Service.
In the end,
no roads were constructed across Indigo Creek.
Roads were extended from the existing roads on the north side of the
creek and the timber south of the creek was removed by helicopters to landings
to the north. When this was implemented
I had transferred to the Cottage Grove District on the Umpqua National Forest
in the spring of 1988 to be closer to family living in Eugene. In the summer of 2002 most this area burned
again in the Biscuit Fire, the largest fire in the history of Oregon.
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