Re-Heated Turkey

So long old forest, we’ll miss you.

But that doesn’t mean we have to weep. Forests were not put on earth to entertain us. They are not television shows, they don’t have writers or commercials or laughtracks. Yes, they can be mysterious, sweet, beautiful, dangerous, enchanting, deceptive, angry, rewarding, productive, hungry, indifferent… But it is nature, and nature doesn’t think of itself as man’s interactive mural.

So when fire had a blow-out party through about one-quarter of the Angeles National Forest, the L.A. Times published this story:

L.A.'s nature haven, reduced to wasteland
Residents mourn the loss of trails, campgrounds, picnic areas and lookout towers in Angeles National Forest. The Station fire has burned about a quarter
of the forest, closing it indefinitely.

The article then goes on to say how sad everyone is that such a pretty place burned. It even referred to the forest as “L.A.’s playground.” Really. L.A.’s playground. As though the forest grew just for our benefit.

Yes, I’ll miss hiking the trails (many will be closed for some time), but I won’t mourn. Instead, I will watch what promises to be the second greatest recovery act of the decade. And since it’s not really here for our entertainment, maybe we should take a moment to appreciate it.

Yeah, it sucks that it’s arson. But frankly, without human interference, this place would have burned once or twice in the last fifty years. The fire is probably just overdue.

So let’s look at some of the positives.

• Not everything burned. Some of my favorite spots made it. Echo Mountain, my first Angeles hike, survived. So did Henninger Flats, Eaton Canyon, and Chantry Flat.
  



• Both observatories made it. Yeah, I know it would have been bad if Mt. Wilson had gone down, but I would have missed Stony Ridge more. The lesser known and more hidden observatory is far cooler and more personal. Check out the website - http://stony-ridge.org/

• The White City Resort, the Mt. Lowe Railway, and Ye Alpine Tavern were destroyed by fire (and flood and winds and more fire) over a period of 40 years beginning at the turn of the century (1900, people). (Check the wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lowe_Railway) For a period of time, this was one of Los Angeles’s best tourist attractions. Now it’s a spectacular hike to its ruins. Imagine if fire had not destroyed it. There’d be a 7-11 and a McDonald’s there now. So fire has it’s good side.
  



• Wait ‘til you see how it comes back. I’ve seen Mt. St. Helen’s and Yellowstone after devastation there. The return of growth is as amazing as the impact of disaster.
  



• You get to tell your grandkids you were there. It’s a defining moment.
  It had to happen eventually, and now that it has, it will be hard to burn it again for awhile. Think of it as housecleaning.
  



• What’s the big deal about green, anyway? Time to appreciate black and brown for awhile.
  



• Now you have a chance to chip in. Some of these trails are going to need rebuilding. Twenty years from now, when you take your grandkids hiking, you can tell them you helped build the trail.

So don’t be blue. Get up, get out, and make an impact yourself. I’ll be thinking about you while I knock down a beer watching the Dodger on TV from my personally air-conditioned couch.