08/20/2021
Hello Skyforest neighbors,
As many of you are aware, there has been a campaign on several local FB pages that contain a tremendous amount of false, and misleading misinformation about the forestry work that we have been doing here on roughly 52 acres of private property forest land which I own in the Skyforest/Lake Arrowhead area. In hindsight maybe I could have called together the entire Skyforest community for an informational session which might have helped, however, I have in fact spoken with many of my local neighbor directly on a one-to-one basis as I have met them. In some cases, I have had numerous in-depth discussions with neighbors who live close by, but regardless of the truthful explanations of the forestry work that we were doing, they still insisted that nevertheless they did not like or want to see any cars driving by their house, now or in the future, on their way to the corner of Blue Ridge and Greenbriar and did not want to see any people in the area.
I am looking forward to properly informing the community and dispelling all the untruths and very incorrect information that has been repeatedly put out there on Public social media. Sadly, the Facebook campaign of misinformation has unfortunately resulted in needlessly tearing apart the community and delaying the much-needed critical fire abatement work as well as needed erosion control measures. As much as I dislike having to publicly discuss these kinds of occurrences, I find that due to the excessive amount of this relentless disinformation that is continuously being published out there, that I now absolutely must respond in a way that cannot be altered, deleted, or edited. Therefore, we are putting up this page that others do not have deletion controls over, and in several different posts I will be addressing all the concerns that have been voiced. Here is the first portion of that true and accurate information:
BACKGROUND and MOTIVATIONS
My name is Eric Helmle. I will be 75 years old in November. I have owned a beautiful historic log and rock cabin here in Skyforest for over 30 years now. This cabin is only a few blocks away from the SE corner of these 52 acres of the forestland in question. From the time that I first bought this cabin - and particularly ever since the ‘Old Fire’ of 2003 – like many of my neighbors, I have been very concerned about the next big inevitable fire that will occur in our area at some point.
At this time in my life, I am fortunate that I have the resources and the knowledge to try to make a difference and mitigate the extremely dangerous conditions of this forestland. One of the areas that presents a huge fire hazard is just below the SE corner of this forestland parcel where Blueridge & Greenbriar meet. At that location there is extremely steep terrain, some of the steepest terrain in Lake Arrowhead. This steep terrain had been left completely un-maintained for decades because access into this area had been virtually impossible. In order to get into that area and do any meaningful fire abatement work, the old and overgrown and eroded access roads had to first be restored. Most of us know that fire travels uphill and that the more fuel there is in an area, the hotter and longer a fire is going to burn. These dangerous circumstances were crying out to be corrected before it was too late!
PURCHASE OF THE LAND
In 2017 I found out that this large parcel of forestland in our area was up for sale. Apparently, several potential buyers had already looked at it but had passed on buying it because of the tremendous amount of work, effort, and expense that would be required to clean it up. This was due to the very steep and inaccessible topography. The thought of taking on that kind of a challenge was simply too much to entice buyers. Therefore, this land just sat there getting worse and more dangerous by the year, increasing the fire hazard to the neighboring houses and neighborhoods; Skyforest, Lake Arrowhead, Cedar Glen, Cedar Ridge. Please look at the attached article that addresses the current fire dangers specifically in the San Bernardino Mountains, and particularly in our immediate area from The Press Enterprise.
When I saw and realized the bigger picture in this area, I felt that someone needed to step in and try to resolve it. At that time, I had recently sold my business (Tires Warehouse Inc, TWI) that I had started nearly 50 years earlier. So, this left me with the time, ability, and resources to consider taking on this project while pursuing my lifelong passion and love of nature, land conservation, and wildlife habitat preservation.
So, I made the decision to purchase this forest and to set out to make it as fire-safe and healthy as I possibly could. I started working on this very soon after buying it and now expect to see the deer and other wildlife that have been so squeezed out by the overcrowded conditions repopulate the area. (More on that later).
The BARK BEETLE INFESTATION IN 2004:
I understand that around January 2004, there were over 9 million dead trees, of which over 1 million were on private lands in the San Bernardino Mountains. On these 52 acres the access was so poor to non-existent, that the Forest Service was actually flying out a huge quantity of dead trees from the center of this very property by helicopter - since that was the only available way to get them out. At that time, a helipad was graded there in order to have a place to stockpile these dead trees and to then to fly them out from that spot. Until just a few weeks ago there still remained the last few dozens of these now very deteriorated dead trees still piled up there on that helipad which had not gotten flown out. We have just finished getting those dead trees cut up and chipped.
THE MASSIVE CLEAN UP BEGINS
When we first started the cleanup work, it was all being done by hand. However, it didn’t take us long to realize that we would never get very far that way. We needed to have the proper equipment to make any meaningful progress. About that same time in 2019 I was introduced to a local contractor who specialized in doing forestry cleanup work. He in turn introduced me to the USDA NRCS, the Natural Resources Conservation Services, who is organized specifically to assist private owners of large tracts of forest land to put those lands into better and safer conditions for the long-term health and conservation of those lands... and for the greater fire safety of the adjacent communities.
It was a lengthy process, but we finally completed a signed contract with the NRCS to begin this work in 2019. The first phase of this work was done by the local forestry contractor who had suggested the NRCS to me. However, once we reached the point in our work where we were going to be getting into the steepest areas of the property at the SE corner, (near Blueridge & Greenbriar), which was by far the portion of the property that was in the worst condition and the most dangerous in terms of a forest fire racing up its slopes, this contractor explained that he was ‘not going to be able to get his equipment in there’ to be able to start cleaning it up. It was simply "too steep" to work on, and it had "no available access" because of the 20 foot drop off just beyond the edge of the asphalt at Blue Ridge. (He explained that years earlier, there had been a way to get into a portion of the property, but that after the construction of the homes along the west side of Cumberland that was no longer the case).
So, for this contractor, the cleanup work we wanted to do, had now already gone about as far as it could. He said that the only additional work that could even be considered in that area of the property was what is called “Lop & Scatter”. This term means thinning, trimming and cutting as much material as possible, but then just leaving all that material laying on the ground without removing it or even chipping it up. There had already been decades of this kind of Lop & Scatter work done in that area which had left acres and acres of deep piles of ‘kindling’ all over the area 'just waiting for a spark'. He said that with the extremely poor condition of the decades old logging roads in the area, that there would be no other choice, other than first go in to do serious logging road restorations. Taking on such a task was incredibly challenging, but it had to be done. We began this work up at the very top and then started working our way down. This challenging work has taken a huge, dedicated effort by some very skilled and dedicated tree trimmers and equipment operators who truly risked their own safety to be able to work in these impossible conditions. The work in that part of the property alone has been going on since October of 2020, six days a week, including myself. This is not a complaint because until the relentless disinformation campaign was started, I have super enjoyed doing this work, and knowing how much good we were accomplishing for the forest, the wildlife, and the community. I am hugely grateful and indebted to this team for their amazing efforts.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
There had been hundreds of trees that had grown right up in and through the middle of these internal service roads. Some as large as 12 inches in diameter. Just dealing with all those trees alone, in addition to the many other dead and dying trees and debris in there, was a “massive” effort. Overcrowded trees and undergrowth do not contribute to a healthy forest. There were many areas in that forest that were so thickly overgrown that neither human nor animal could possibly walk through.
Being able to get large chipping machines & log handling equipment into all those areas required restoring many of the old roads & landings first. There has to be flat landing areas on the steep slopes to set and operate the large chipping machine. Thankfully, there were and are many of these old roads and landings scattered all throughout that area. It has now been about 10 months since we started working in that S-E corner of the forest. And now the decades-old internal service roads that had been left totally neglected for so long, have now been restored to usable firebreaks and service roads, creating a defensible space that will allow firefighting crews and their equipment to launch an assault on a deadly fire that would otherwise have raced unchecked into Skyforest, and yes, up to my own house as well.
Now at this time, although not yet finished, this area is now accessible to be maintained and serviced, and is many, many times safer in terms of fire danger. There are now many very good firebreaks and service roads that will allow for both the tree maintenance equipment access and, firefighter access. As a further benefit we also expect to see an increase in the wildlife population on these 52 acres.
(Much more to be said about this work later).
Upcoming topics to be discussed later:
Water use:
Road restoration work requires water to achieve the needed compaction. It is not possible to do this kind of work without water. I am extremely grateful that we were able to access the needed water for this project, (aside from the controversial and ‘very misleading’ aspects of that).
Using water to restore fire service roads in order to prevent fires will very likely end up ‘Saving lots’ of ‘firefighting water’ in the end, if forest fires are ‘prevented’ in the first place... not to mention... preventing the loss of homes and lives, both human and wildlife.
A Healthy forest.
Trees per acre.
Species competition.
Light, nutrients & water.
Canopy spacing and ladder fuel.
The Disinformation Campaign:
The real reasons for the disinformation campaign.
The Lies that have been told:
The Truth that needs to be told:
