Trustees left with rubble at fire site near Manton
The Shasta County Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to log Camp Latieze to salvage the timber scorched by the nearly 28,000-acre Ponderosa Fire."Ecologically, we have no choice. You have to get it done," Trustee Diane Gerard said.
The August fire destroyed about 52 homes and 90 outbuildings including the camp's cabins, multipurpose hall and ornate Latieze house. The board previously had been searching for a buyer or lessee for the 163-acre property, which was bequeathed to the Shasta County Office of Education.
After the fire burned through the land, the Office of Education hired Jim Chapin to evaluate the property.
In a report to the board Wednesday, Chapin said Latieze had about 1.3 million board feet of timber. Of that, about 1 million will have to be harvested, generating a profit of around $50,000 to $60,000. Undamaged trees will be spared.
"Unfortunately, this happens way too often, loss to a major fire," Chapin told the board. He said the board would have to act fast to prevent the timber from being infested by a fungus, which would discolor the wood.
Lumber mills won't take the grayish-blue wood, he said. The office also will have to seek out mills in Burney, Weed or Trinity County because Sierra Pacific Industries will be inundated with lumber from salvaging its own lands, Chapin said.
Chapin told the board the salvage operation will begin in October and be finished by the end of November. Workers then will begin clearing out the dead undergrowth, which would be done by next summer, he said.
At the suggestion of Tom Armelino, superintendent of the Shasta County Office of Education, the board put off deciding whether it would rebuild or not until its insurance company delivers estimates.
The camp had been used extensively for educational purposes.
But in recent years the property had fallen out of use, prompting the board to try selling the property for around $1 million. The fire, though, razed every building.
"You could tell where (the cabins) were by the crumpled pieces of metal," said Trustee Gerard. "Nothing of the cabins were left, just those metal roofs."
Nola Wade had worked with the board to find a tenant for the property rather than selling it. She said a veterans group was headed up for a second visit to the property.
"I don't know what's going to happen now," Wade said.
Chapin said he'd have a report on the extent of the fire's environmental damage, along with a reforestation plan, for the board to consider by December.
Linda Bradford asked Chapin about any risks to water being contaminated by the logging.
"All those things you do in normal logging you have to do in a salvage operation," Chapin said. That includes mounds every 50 feet to direct polluted water away from the creekbeds.
At its Wednesday meeting, the board also voted unanimously to charter a second North Woods Discovery School, which appealed a rejection of its charter by the Redding School District in June. Armelino said he'd worked out almost all the plan's issues with John Husome, director of the school in Mountain Gate. Husome had sought a spot on the 1800 block of Park Marina Drive because the school's neighbors have caused frequent problems in the area where it's now located, including crimes that put the school into lockdown.
"It's been a long, arduous road," said Board President Bill Stegall.
"Being a charter school, we got used to it," Husome said.
Source: http://www.redding.com/news/2012/sep/12/board-votes-to-salvage-camp-latieze-timber/
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