Dear Campers, Parents, Staff, Alumni, and Friends,

I took a walk today through a bit of woods that burned in August.  The fine talcum ash that had covered everything a month ago has been washed off by a recent rain and is now a clumpy and cakey layer underfoot.  The fire has worked some magic here, turning years of accumulated woody litter into nutrients that will supercharge the surviving trees.  You would be amazed at how quiet it is in a burned forest.  Bugs, lizards, leaves, sticks or anything else that would usually scamper or crunch have either been consumed or run off by the flames.  Amazingly, many critters have already moved back as a new layer of forest duff builds, full of the hiding places every bug needs while munching tasty green shoots that sprout from the roots of scorched plants.
 
While it is different, there are many things to enjoy in the post-fire landscape -- like no Poison Oak!  The now open views, once blocked by brush, give you a whole new appreciation for places you’ve been a hundred times.  It’s so easy to walk in any direction here that a trail often seems irrelevant.  Although radically changed from just a few months ago, this is a more ‘natural’ state for this landscape, and much closer to how the forests that surround the Ranch would be without our interventions.
 
My grandfather Grover Gates, who grew up here in the early 1900’s and founded Camp Trinity in 1930, remembered a forest of his childhood that was not cluttered by undergrowth and debris.  “You could drive a wagon anywhere”, he would say (although this was maybe a bit of wishful thinking, if any of you remember just how rugged the country around camp can be). 
 
Grover also remembered setting the forest on fire each autumn, a quick and easy way to improve grazing and forage for the livestock their family depended on.  Because they burned often, these fires were low intensity, left to burn until winter rains extinguished them.  This practice of ‘prescribed fire’, is something we have revived, intentionally burning pieces of the Ranch during times of the year when the conditions allow the fire to do it’s work with the least damage to the trees.  To see a prescribed fire on the Ranch from a few years ago, you can watch this video:

Best wishes from all of us here at the Ranch,

Kent

Did You Know ... ?

…that Colt, Ukiah, Lassen, Zeus, Chili, Surprise, Burlie, Picante, and Sprite have been grazing across the river since August?  The horses got off work earlier than usual and are enjoying their life as a ‘wild’ herd roaming the hills and munching on grass.
 
…that we have a new apple press that can squeeze 5 gallons of delicious fresh apple juice at a time? We can't wait to make lots of apple cider with all of you next summer.
 
…that we have five new calves in our beef cow herd?  The cows wandered back to the Ranch in mid-September this year from their summer range up on Grassy Flats.  We were happy to see the new young ones trailing after their mothers.
 
…that the Bar 717 Ranch will have a booth at the San Francisco Green Festival, November 13-15^th at the Cow Palace?  If you live in the Bay Area, please stop by and visit us!
 
...that the Pattison Fire was started by lightning on Pattison Peak on July 30? Pattison is directly behind Gates Mountain across the canyon from Camp.  Over the next month, the Pattison fire burned 13,667 acres, mostly in the Pattison Roadless Area. Camper Jacob Hoadley took this amazing photo of the lightning that started the fires.
 
…that Melia, Weston, Olin and Nora helped split and stack over a cord of Black Oak firewood last weekend?  We’ll use this wood to keep warm during cold winter nights at the Ranch this winter.  Campers and counselors also split firewood this summer which was sold so the proceeds could be put into the Campership Fund for 2016.
 
…that there were four weddings planned to be held at the Ranch in 2015?  Two had to be moved or postponed because of the fires, but the other two were held at the Ranch and both were wonderful events.

The Bar 717 Ranch