Crown Fire - The Aftermath

This sheltered valley is where the rancher usually puts his breeding cows, that just had their calves. We were really happy to see a small herd of cattle. Between the drought and now the fire, I was wondering if they were gonna make it.

Those black hills were covered with white buckwheat bushes in full flower before the Crown Fire.
Sigh . . .

Driving by their farm pond.

Spotted this nest. We think it's an owl nest. It was a pretty large opening. Kind of nice change of pace after all that black ash.

Don't know why DH made me take this photo of the gate. It gets kind of interesting from here on.

Back in the black ash. It's making my throat itch, just looking at it.

That white splotch in the center of this photos is the last of our bees up here. We hope!

Using the telephoto, it looks promising from a distance.

Still have a ways to go to get there, though.

Photo of how the fire burned up the hill from our bee location.

Whoa!
Look at that! No wonder the power company asked us to move out the bees! Which we did that very night. (The crew did, not me and DH).

Just look.

Amazing, isn't it?

DH told me to take this photo, and I have to admit it's one of my favorites. They got to change out that pole!

We're really glad they turned off the power going through these lines. They are touching the ground here.

Used the telephoto so we could all see it better.

Can you see how close those power lines are to the bee hives?

Looking down at those same lines, as we drive around the perimeter of the bee hives.

Don't know what to say.

Wait we found some fire damage to one of the pallets. CDF was there and put this fire out before it caught the hives on fire. Bless them one and all!

Another view of the power lines.

And another only this time looking up slope.

When you see something like this you are just flabbergasted. At least we were, but mostly we were thankful that more damage wasn't done.

Looking down the valley. The farm pond is in the center of the photo where it's still green.

Used the telephoto, so you can see the bee hives and the farm pond in the distance.

The same bee location from above.

Using the telephoto this time.

Looking at the power lines from above.

Using the telephoto to see the power lines from above.

Whacky view of the power lines. I'm getting really tired of black ash. : - (

Some welcome green and shade on our way out.

Last one for now. The beautiful rolling hills of Southern California.
DH says that depending on the rain next year there may be a spectacular wildflower show in them there burnt out hills. It'll take years probably for it to return to what it was before the fire. Sigh.
This is the last photo in this series.
Before I forget, I should tell you all a little story. First of all though I want everyone to know that our CDF Firefighters are great people.
Now for the short story. DH's sister knows the Fire Captain who was working on these fires. He saw the hives with our name on them. After the fire he called SIL and told her that he'd saved her Dad's bee hives. Thank the Creator for our Fire Fighters. They'd have done the same even if they didn't know the family. We'll make sure to give our local guys some honey and BBQ for thanks. We'll make sure to have SIL get some to that Fire Captain and his crew too. : - )
They are all one big family, you know. : - )
I'm sure grateful they were there to save most of our hives. It's an ouch in the pocket book/wallet, but it's not as bad as the Sudden Colony Collapse was. We'll recover.
So no worries about us, we'll be fine. : - )
Once again questions and comments are welcomed. As I said previously, I hope to go back out next spring and document how that area is recovering after the fire. : - )
Thanks for sitting out this long thread. Considering I started out with over three hundred photos, I think I did okay in showing a good representation of what it looks like after the fire has burned through the brush and chaparral of the upper desert.
Hope you found it educational.
You all take very good care. :- )
~Walk In Beauty~
SingingWolf

Jules, these are some amazing photos. It seems that no matter what the situation, you take such great shots! Kudos to you.

How sad for all your bees and other wild life that did not make it, and of course for you guys with the financial hit. Will those bee survivors be tougher for all this, or will they be stunted in some way due to all the ash?

The bees were moved out from those locations the day I took the photos. (last Thursday) We normally have to put a new queen in at least once a year to make sure the hive doesn't turn Africanized. The worker bees, don't live very long in the first place. DH said that aside from them being more docile than normal, they were fine. In the long term, I don't think it'll be a problem for the bees.
The only thing I know of besides insecticides that hurts bees is a tree that causes genetic mutations. Drat, I forgot the name of the tree. Wait, I remembered! It's a Buckeye tree? It's a really pretty tree, but the bee larvae that eat the nectar/honey from the Buckeye tree, don't develop wings, or have other abnormalities. These guys are going to be fine, the smoke just makes them docile. They have plenty of food in them hives, they just need water to cool the hives.
DH has been moving them up to Bakersfield and points north of that for the Blue Curl crop. The buckwheat crop was almost over anyway.
I am sending you a photo of a blue curl plant. It is not currently blooming. They have such a strong odor, that nothing will eat the plant. Well, except the bees eat the nectar. Once you smell blue curl, you'll never forget the odor. It's medicinal use among the NAI was as an astringent.
For such a noxious weed it sure makes fine honey. The sugar content is so high that it has to go into a "honey pool" or it will start to sugar up almost immediately. Putting it the honey pool, just dilutes it enough so that it doesn't crystallize or sugar up so quickly.
Since blue curl is really picky about it's growing conditions, we don't always get a crop of honey from it, but we will this year! : - )
This blue curl is very short right now, a couple of inches tall and not bushy. When they are very happy, they can get about 18 inches tall and about a foot in diameter. These be sprigs.
Most of the wild life that could, left. I didn't see any other dead things except that one bird, and the cow that was already dead. Some flew or ran before the fire, others burrowed deep, and some took shelter under and inside of some of those bushes (like where the hawk was), because they didn't burn.
FIL says it'll be a couple of years before the buckwheat comes back. Maybe only two years if it rains a lot, more if not.
We have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, I just showed MIL the photos I took. She was so amazed that we didn't loose more hives, after seeing the photos. She's even going to make that a topic for her church blessing this week. That God is present with us today, and still performs miracles. She intends to use the bees and how they survived to illustrate her point.
Thanks to the Creator and Thanks to the CDF Firefighters that we still have our bees.
Thanks for the compliment, QG, but really it's the camera not me. LOL!
Okay, enough, here's the photo of the blue curl.
WIB~
SW

This message was edited Aug 10, 2010 5:57 PM

Jules, Thank you for showing us the aftermath that doesn't seem to be "newsworthy". The news only shows the homes that were threatened or destroyed...never the long term effects to the farmers, ranchers, beekeepers etc. I'm sure there will be reports of all the problems with wildlife comming into the communities looking for food and water though.
The fire crews seem to have gone the extra mile in protecting your hives. Hooray for them! The land will recover in time.
LOL...I always have to wonder what the pioneers thought when they got through the Sierras and saw this dry, seemingly barren country in the summer or fall...

Alcohol I'd imagine. LOL!
You need to remember that the Spaniards were here before the Americans, and what few large ranches remain today show us what they would have seen. Cattle grazing on grasslands.
They saw forage for their weary oxen, cattle and horses, clean water in the rivers and creeks. Many stopped off to begin farms of their own. Of course all the really big ranches are owned by corporations today, not individuals.
We will recover. So will the farmers, and the ranchers. We've already been undergoing drought conditions for the last 4-5 years. Everyone has downsized to cut costs. You have to in times like these.
I can document what happened and hope to document how long it takes to recover. I hope that some day the information will help us manage our "wild" lands better.
I'm sure people are going to start complaining about the wild life encroaching, but I also think there is enough wild still left that they won't. Some areas were still in good shape especially on the backside of the ridge from where we were. It was still green there.
The fire crews were awesome. No doubt about it. I honestly believe they would have protected as many of the hives as they could no matter who they belonged to. It's part of their mandate to protect property, and we do lease land from them at certain times of the year for bee locations.
MIL, was really glad to see the photos. We are all so grateful only the 80 hives were lost. It could have been so much worse. We'll be fine. We've weathered worse. :- )
Glad of your interest in the subject., OCCAROL
WIB,
SW

Jules,
Thanks for the tour of the burnt area. I'm also happy that not all your hives are destroyed.
I'm with you about the langoliers...I can almost see them eating earth from behind the hill! LOL
Great pictures and very interesting !

Adina

That blue curl is a really neat looking plant. Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge with us. I really do enjoy your threads.

You have to go back there next spring and take pictures of all of the wildflowers that come up.

That's my plan, Kelli, and you know I'll be posting them on this thread too. Thanks for reading this long thread. It was hard to document, except the bird eating the rodent, but so hard to see all that scorched earth and to smell the burned zone. Still I'm glad I did it.
WIB!
SW