Thanks Jim,
Fire season (which now seems to be all year) is becoming very much a fact of life. The thing that amazes me is how resilient the people are about these things, even many of those people who are most directly impacted.
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Spoke with the Super at Rustic (Jeff Hicks) briefly this morning. Closed today because of smoke and debris in the air, but the course itself was not damaged. The fire burned down to the 13th through 16th holes but that is about it. After past fires there wasn't all that much to burn anyway.
Like with the big fire in 2004 (?) the real problem is that most of the huge watershed above the course again burned to the dirt, meaning that if we have a wet winter the runoff will be horrendous. The channel easily handled the runoff the last few years, but this winter is likely to pose a real test.
As for other courses in the area, the AP photos and maps show that the fire was very close to Elkins Ranch over the hill and also fairly close to Moorpark Country Club. Jeff thought that both courses were fine but did not know for sure. Elkins has a lot of mature trees and I am not sure if they were damaged or not.
One interesting aspect with all these California fires is how the golf courses are being utilized to aid the firefighting efforts.
- The courses act as a firebreak, often buffering populated areas from the wild canyon land fires. Before Rustic Canyon was built the dry native vegetation ran right up to the edge of a neighborhood. This is the third recent major fire that has run wild until it hit the edge of the course, and was stopped there. This is not to say the neighborhood would have burned otherwise -- I am always astounded about the ability of these guys to protect dwellings. But certainly resources would have been spread even thinner if they had to prevent the fire from sweeping right through these wind tunnel canyons and into civilization.
- Rustic Canyon has a helicopter landing pad with a water source/hydrant near the 18th tee, and the firefighting helicopters are using it as a refill station and staging area. (They use the 18th tee as a landing pad as well.)
- Photos indicate that the helicopters are also sucking water directly out of the irrigation ponds at other courses such as Elkins ranch. Below is an AP photo taken at Elkins yesterday.
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David,
Last map I saw the fire was quite a ways West of Lost Canyons and not really heading that direction.
An El Nino year would create some problems, especially if this fire season continues like it is starting off.