Fire season is upon us

[Old Greenhorn]

Any Updates @WhitePineJunky ? I have been thinking about you pretty steady and wondering how you are making out.

[Andries]

Smoke by the Numbers:
- There’s about 110 wildfires in Quebec, Canada at the moment.
- Most of the fires are in the far North, beyond road access.
- Quebec estimates at least 1200 firefighters are needed to control fires.
- Firefighters in from France: 110 - merci beaucoup!
- Firefighters in from USA: 600 - thank you! 
- Wildfire-Firefighter jobs cut in Ontario over the last three years in Ontario: 65% (some politicians need to be sent to the front lines of the firefighting)
- 692,000 acres in Quebec alone, have gone up in smoke.
- Smoke from BC fires is carried by winds at over 20,000 ft up, by the jet stream to the Canadian Maritimes and New England USA. 
This is a ‘continental’ event. 
- El Niño is a Pacific ocean current and weather event, that has a three year cycle. It’s now happened three years in a row. 
- pretty sunsets aren’t always a cool thing.
 
This too will pass, best wishes to all adversely effected by this year’s fire season. 

[WhitePineJunky]

Any Updates @WhitePineJunky ? I have been thinking about you pretty steady and wondering how you are making out.

I appreciate it. It ain’t good, worse than I ever could of imagined. House is still there, but everything else is gone, all my outbuildings and barns with lots and lots of valuables,  gone. The only other thing that survived was the bandsaw mill somehow even though the fire wrapped right around it and melted the gas jug to it. All the trees are dead, the whole 160 acres, scorched black even the large pines are dead, it feels like a wasteland, and I’m definitely hurting today and will be for awhile. I plan to cut down and mill some and also replant over the next 5-10 years. Really bad day today

[WhitePineJunky]

 

 

Being on a forum like this I’m sure there are others that have trees they almost see as their children. I really love trees and nature so it really hurts they’re all gone, the whole reason I lived up here was for the trees and especially big oaks and pines. All the standing ones are orange needles and falling off. Il half to clear cut and start over 

[Andries]

Heartfelt condolences on this huge loss, WhitePine.
Though it may not feel like it at this point in time, forestry regeneration and new growth happens quite quickly, with a nurturing hand such as yours. 

[customsawyer]

I hate that for you Whitepine. Remember that with the new growth there will be lots of new wildlife that you will get to enjoy. Take your time and make this property your legacy. Best wishes.

[Old Greenhorn]

Ah man, I am SO sorry to read this. I know it feels like the end of the world right now, and in some ways, it is, but you do have the house, and that is a big thing right there. Loosing the other stuff is a terrible blow. Trees do grow back and I am sure you will have a bunch of work to do on that mill. But from the pictures, it looks like even though those trees are all brown and toasted and charred, there is still a possibility they will come back. Give it a little time you may see some surprises. I don't know much about fire damaged trees, but I have milled wood from trees that suffered big fires earlier in the lives and survived, so I am hoping to have some too. The main thing is that you survived and are able to continue to do your work. God Speed to you my friend. You will survive this, no doubt.

[Hilltop366]

Well good news about the house and mill not so good about the rest.

Sounds like many lost their house, last I heard was 150 structures destroyed, 60 were houses and cottages.

[barbender]

WhitePine, I am really, really sorry. The only thing that can help me relate is a really powerful windstorm that just flattened my neighborhood back in 2012. No loss of life or even property really, mainly timber damage. But it really did just flatten huge areas around here, in a matter of minutes people's forested properties just looked like someone smashed everything to the ground with a big hand. I was visiting a neighbor, and he said, "I didn't lose anything but trees, no one got hurt, but this was almost...traumatic?". I told him I felt exactly the same, just seeing all of the forest that we'd hunted and lived in our whole lives flattened in the blink of an eye was really hard to comprehend. 

 With all of that said, I again just say I am really sorry for everything that happened up there, and the loss you suffered. It will take a long time to come to terms with it, I'm sure.

[customsawyer]

I also wouldn't rush in there with a chainsaw and just start cutting things down. Lots of trees can withstand a lot more heat than we think. I've done enough controlled burns where the wind changes direction and things get a lot hotter than they should. Yet 98% of the time the trees still made it. Some of it has to do with the temp at the roots or the terminal bud and for how long. If that fire went through there tall and fast it might have just singed things and they will start getting green again after some rain and time.

[Stephen1]

I am heartbroken for you WPJ. Those pine will regenerate ,the understory will pop with green this summer after some more rain. 
Worry about your building's and what you can salvage from them.
The time for your trees will be next winter or even the winter after next summer once you see what has survived and what you need saw to rebuild. 
All the best.

[thecfarm]

That's a hard picture to look at.   
I own land and trees too. I know how you feel.

[firefighter ontheside]

I'm so sorry.  I know the pain of losing the trees.  I built my house where I did because of the yellow pines we have.  2 years after we moved in a wind event/tornado took down almost all of the big trees.  Luckily for us, there were a lot of small trees that have grown a lot in the last 20 years.  It's pretty again, but not like it used to be.  You will have a lot of work to do, but I know you can make it look pretty again.  It will be different but pretty.  

[SwampDonkey]

I know how you feel about your woodlot. That devastation is major kick in the guts. Hopefully you have cost share programs down there to help with reestablishment. Best of luck and better days ahead.

[barbender]

Oak and most pine are fire adapted species, fwiw. Hopefully a number of them will pull through and you'll have the cleanest looking understory around.

[Ron Scott]

A sad time. Stay strong, trees are renewable, and nature heals. 

[nativewolf]

Any Updates @WhitePineJunky ? I have been thinking about you pretty steady and wondering how you are making out.

I appreciate it. It ain’t good, worse than I ever could of imagined. House is still there, but everything else is gone, all my outbuildings and barns with lots and lots of valuables,  gone. The only other thing that survived was the bandsaw mill somehow even though the fire wrapped right around it and melted the gas jug to it. All the trees are dead, the whole 160 acres, scorched black even the large pines are dead, it feels like a wasteland, and I’m definitely hurting today and will be for awhile. I plan to cut down and mill some and also replant over the next 5-10 years. Really bad day today

WPJ-  Very sorry to hear but don't wait to replant.  I cannot suggest strongly enough that you go ahead and seed in with acorns and other forest tree seeds.  Much much faster than seedlings, a fraction of the costs.  You can design the next forest in much greater degrees of freedom.  It's what nature will do in any case, help it along.  I am guessing that some acorns and pine seeds will have survived and sprout.  Walk the forest floor carefully looking.  I'd also go ahead and apply some native flowing plant seeds.  A little tiny bit will do you.  Garret Seed in North Carolina is one of the best and I am sure they could point you to a seed source for your needs.  

[Southside]

WP - sorry to hear this.  Don't give up on those pines yet.  A fire started on our place a bit over a decade ago from a tree falling onto a power line.  It was a bad day and there were fires all around the are.  @Wudman can tell you more about the event.  Anyway the fire got into pine and from the looks of the scorching on your trees wasn't a lot different than what happened here.  Anything over 12" DBH survived and many smaller ones did too. Had a bad ice storm come through two winters back and did a LOT of damage all around, no power for three weeks and I had stood outside and listened to tree after tree after tree snap off, it was bad.  Many of those snapped off pines are now falling on their own, but the natural re-gen that has come up really hides them.  A friend had me come over this spring as he thought he had some type of bug as he only now noticed the dead trees.  Even the oaks have dropped the dead limbs that snapped off but didn't fall.  One has to know what happened and then look for the evidence now instead of it being everywhere, and it's only been a bit over two years.  Things will get better quickly. 

[WhitePineJunky]

Thanks everyone. I’ve been laying low last couple days got a stress migraine and can’t eat much or sleep with cold sweats and hot flashes, but I’m coming around a little today, I had to leave the property the day I saw it as it’s too depressing for me to see right now. 

I’m going back this week though. 
I already had 5000 seedlings of red/white pine to plant this season but they don’t get here until September, I am probably calling them back up and adding 10000 to the order I’m not sure exactly how many yet though. 

I really hope some of the big pines come through but I don’t have high hopes, here’s another picture that shows the crowns, all the needles are orange


 If anyone has experience with white pine being hit by forest fire badly let me know what you think

[SwampDonkey]

My grandfather had white pine on his property and that of cousins, that went through a fire about 100 years ago. One was gutted enough to be able to stand inside. The pines are still alive. They are 36" + diameter pines. Then, I have seen white pine forest on the upper Miramachi that were standing ghosts with 60 year old spruce growing up since the fire. Old dead standing pine everywhere. Depends on the heat, a slow moving fire does more damage than a wind driven one that mostly jumps in the tree crowns.

One of them white pines.