With flames halted, fire crews work to clean up and clear trails at Armstrong Redwoods reserve

Upon entering Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, there are few signs flames from the Walbridge fire last week reached the beloved park near Guerneville.

The haze of smoke that lingered in the trees mostly has cleared, and patches of sunshine streak through the canopy. Among the old-growth redwood groves that remained untouched, a quiet calm prevailed as fire engines and ranger vehicles slowly rolled by.

But roughly a half-mile into the reserve, the fire’s mark on the forest is laid bare. Burn areas reveal an ashen landscape, dotted with charred husks of forest ferns. Some ancient redwoods stand blackened and hollowed by the blaze. Others rest smoldering on the valley floor.

Still, the damage could have been much worse. Fire crews were able to save nearly all of the park’s most cherished coastal redwoods, including the 1,400-year-old Colonel Armstrong tree, the eldest giant in the reserve.

“I was pleased to see that not as much of the forest floor was burned as I had thought,” said Michele Luna, executive director of Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, a nonprofit that helps manage the park. “To see it was kind of eye- opening and made us feel very grateful.”

Firefighters have put a stop to the low-lying flames that crept through the upper section of the reserve. Now, crews are focused on mopping up burn areas, clearing trails and monitoring trees that were badly damaged in the blaze.

“You may not have active fire, but you’re still dealing with smoldering hot spots, as well as trees that could cause a fall hazard,” Cal Fire spokesman Paul Lowenthal said.

Brandon Alexander, of Cal Fire from San Diego, is helping lead a crew of 20 California National Guard troops from the San Luis Obispo area in restoration efforts in the park. Gov. Gavin Newsom mobilized the National Guard to assist firefighters due to a shortage of inmate crews since many prisoners have been released amid coronavirus concerns.

On Monday, the crew worked with chain saws to limb fallen trees and built burn piles to dispose of branches and other debris cleared from the forest floor.

“The majority of the fire has already come through, so we’re at the point of cleaning up,” Alexander said.

California State Parks is mainly clearing burned fir and eucalyptus trees and not redwoods, an agency employee working in the reserve said.

As the flames arrived in the park last week, the crew dug protective rings around up to 100 large redwoods, including the Colonel Armstrong tree, Alexander said. The goal was to keep the base of those trees from catching fire, which could then ignite their more vulnerable inner core.

“We can’t save them all, but all the trees that (the crew) ringed stood,” Alexander said. “It was really cool for them to see their hard work pay off.”

Allan Wiegman, a retired state parks forestry aid from Humboldt County, has been busy guarding the redwoods in the park by snuffing out new hot spots as they flare up. Within the crisped core of one tree, he erected a sprinkler system made out of plumbing piping to create a fine mist inside the redwood.

“Within five or six hours putting the sprinkler in there, (any flames or embers) were out,” he said.

Wiegman said the fire has helped clear out overgrown natural fuel on the forest floor, much of which hadn’t burned in nearly a century. The last large wildfire in the park was in 1923, according to Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, and burn scars are still visible on some partially hollowed trees that survived that blaze.

Luna, the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods executive director, was unable to give a timeline for when the park might reopen to the public.

The nonprofit did launch an online recovery fund and the goal is to raise $100,000. Once fire crews finish work in the reserve, the group will rely on volunteers to help clear hazardous trees, restore walking trails and repair the Bullfrog Campground above the park.

Luna is confident nature will soon take its course in reviving the park’s valley floor and neighboring Austin Creek State Recreation Area, which was also scorched in the fire.

“We expect the burn areas to come back fully,” she said. “We’re hoping and expecting there to be a beautiful wildflower season.”

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian