Customer Reviews

Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests: A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849

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This unusual photographic interpretation of ecological changes brought about by forest fires in the Sierra Nevada since 1849 will provide a guide which should intrigue both California residents and any interested in forestry issues, park management or ecosystems. Chapters use historical photographs to document changes which have taken place over the past 150 years, from early settlements to modern times. Fire In Sierra Nevada Forests will add fuel to debates over prescribed fires and logging issues.

With Bush touring the West talking about logging as the solution to preventing ever larger forest fires, this book provides ample documentation that FIRE SUPRESSION and MONOCULTURE REPLANTING are the real causes of the current explosive environment.

I first saw this book at the top of Mt. Harkness. The fire watchman there pointed it out to me, as we both struggled to peer at Mt. Shasta through the smoky haze created by the Biscuit and Fremont fires.

The differences in the trees and ground cover between now and the last century is striking. Most of the photos taken in the late 1800's show trees devoid of branches below 20 feet, and very little ground cover. Photos of the same area taken recently show thickly limbed trees down to ground level, with dense underbrush. Without hundreds of little fires to regularly clear out the low limbs and undergrowth, the forests become dense tinderboxes. When a fire finally breaks through fire suppression, it kills the trees instead of burning their limbs.

Forest ecology is in its infancy. Since humans have been messing with forests by chopping trees since their evolutionary arrival on the planet, it is rare to have any forest available to serve as a "before and after" example of human impact. With the Sierra Nevada, we do have photographic data available on the impact of European man on them thanks to those early pioneers of photography who hiked the mountains and photographed them.

George Gruell has done a lot of leg work here to bring many examples of Sierra Nevada forests in photographs from the past 150 years or so of human impact, and compared them to recent shots he took from as close to the origial location of the shot taken by the original photographer. These are presented side by side to give the reader a nice comparision. In this way, one is able to visually compare the forest from say 100 years ago to today. The images are startling.

For example; his photos prove that there really are a lot more trees living today than there were when Europeans first entered the Sierra Nevada. Probably, this is because of fire suppression as well as early loggers having removed a lot of the big old growth stands. Even the famed floor of Yosemite is now mostly forested with conifers. I myself love conifers but George makes an interesting point that these forests are "man made" and in many ways are unhealthy from the standpoint that they lead to canopy firestorms that normally don't exsist when fires are allowed to naturally burn themselves out. Fire ecology is important and our fear of forest fires has led to an ever worsening situation in the Sierra Nevada.

I recommend a quick read through this book for anyone interested in Sierra Nevada forest ecology.

My daughter, a Fire Captain for Cal Fire, feels this book is very informative to her in her Fire Suppression work.

If you are interested in the history of the forests in the Sierras and also how past practices managed the forests better than we are doing now, this is a book of photographs for you. It is a basis for the new proposed forest practice of letting the fires burn to get rid of the underbrush and fire ladders. It also benefits the animals.

I found this book most interesting just because of the old photos. While you do look at the then and now shots and see how much has changed, it seems like most of the changes don't have a lot to do with fire. Most of the old photos were taking from development locations, be they mining operations, railroad construction, or town development. So when compared to the current photos the manmade destruction of the land is long gone. It is amaizng to see how the land will return to its wilderness origins once the hands of man are taken away.