Flower Friday : : Fennel

I have been caught up in NanaK's drama of the baby fur seal abandoned by it's mother under their dock. It's a sad story and presents a dilemma about if or when humans should intervene. 

Thinking about her dilemma has made me realize that it is a dilemma we all share in different ways. Here in Santa Rosa OilMan and I live in what is known as the 'urban/wildland interface'. Mother Nature's law with respect to wildfires in California was always to let them burn. This would clear the understory of brush, burn the diseased and dying trees and allow the rest of the forest to thrive. When I was growing up in Southern California, wildfires were a part of life in the summer. I learned to recognize the fact that there was a fire burning somewhere when I awoke to an orange sun and smoky skies.

Now, however, people are building their homes closer to the wildlands and fires can't be allowed to burn unchecked. The understory has become choked with chaparral and grass. The diseased trees are left in place and in turn infect more trees. Power poles have been built everywhere. A single spark from a power line could ignite an inferno.

Added to this is the fact of climate change.  I never heard the term 'firestorm' until the East Bay Hills firestorm of 1991. Fueled by non-native eucalyptus trees and hot temperatures, a fire which was started by a homeless man's campfire, and determined to have been put out the day before, burst into flame once again. Pushed by high Santa Ana winds the flames roared through the East Bay hills before people were even aware that there was a problem. In the end, 3,000 plus homes burned and 24 people were killed. The same kind of fire burned through Santa Rosa last October and is currently burning in Mendocino and Lake Counties north of us. 

I don't think it is possible any longer to let nature take its course. In fact, I'm not entirely sure how we can even separate humans from nature. We humans have certainly made a mess of the planet, and I think we are now responsible for cleaning it up before it is too late. In situations like NanaK's that means intervening when we can to right the wrongs we have created.

If we live near a forest we are responsible for creating 'defensible space' around our houses, and no matter where we live we have to stop producing greenhouse gasses which are causing hotter weather and  killing the trees which fuel the flames and the fish which feed the seals. 

Did NanaK do the wrong thing by seeking help for a starving baby seal? I don't think so. Did we do the wrong thing by buying a house near the hills? No...but I think we all bear some responsibility for our choices. Circumstances change and we can only do the best we can to change along with them.