The Bastrop Fire of 2011

The ancient Lost Pines area of Bastrop County experienced a huge fire that was out of control for nearly two weeks in 2011. This area of the state was in an extended drought and during this time high winds broke high voltage power lines at two points, resulting in the live wires dropping to the ground where sparks then ignited the underbrush. The fire of the underbrush got out of control and the flames reached the tops of the trees and ignited the foliage. For weeks after the blaze was finally extinguished, the fire was thought to be caused by careless acts, but an in-depth study showed that the fire was caused by the broken and downed powerlines sparking to ground.

The Lost Pines area is unique to central Texas because pines don't normally grow in this environment. East Texas yes, but central Texas no, except for this area of Loblolly Pines that thrive because of the soil. The soil is a red colored sandy soil mixed with red sandstone, all left over from when this area was on the beach when the Gulf of Mexico waters ran far inland.The Loblolly Pine is a magnificent tree, growing to great heights with a straight trunk. The bark is even but patched in a pattern as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1, Bark pattern of Loblolly Pine

This tree is very tall, straight and therefore good for lumber. When mature, the foliage is high in the tree and this allows the tree to withstand ground fires without being damaged or destroyed. But, when the ground litter gets excessive, the fire can reach the foliage in the upper structure of the tree and then its all lost---especially on this day when the wind was so high and the drought made the needles almost explosive in the combustibility.

The fire raged for two weeks and burned about a third of this ancient forest of pines. Below is an satellite view of the area of the forest with a superimposed area showing the burn pattern. The fire went out after essentially running out of trees to burn. Many homes were burned several people injured and two perished. Firefighters from other states helped control and finally extinguish the last of the ground fires after the fire in the treetops died out.

The fire was finally extinguished and then the recover work began. Efforts by local people and the Texas Forest Service will play a significant role in the recovery, as will the forces of nature. Already new growth is appearing with the new pine trees competing with new growth of oaks.

But it will be many years, maybe a hundred years, before this area even begins to appear as it did before the great fire of 2011.

Comments

Smithville, USA

If you are not observant while traveling northwest on Highway 71, Smithville will be in the rearview mirror and so then you will have missed it all. It's not on the main road but off to the south a block or so. We have driven past Smithville many times but this time, in order not to miss it, we decided to make that our destination. Smithville's main street runs parallel to the highway that runs north-south and therefore parallel to Highway 71. Highway 71 connecting Houston with Austin runs on the north side of the Colorado River and Smithville is on the south side of the river. This narrow separation from the main trunk line highway is what has spared Smithville from the ultimate doom of either death from isolation or ruin from big city influence. We often travel miles and miles for a new lunch experience and this trip was no different in that it was a 90-minute drive to reach our destination of the Old World Bakery and Cafe. The bakery part is ...

Cause and Effect

We have this great world atlas book published by the National Geographical Society, which by the way, we bought at the local library used book sale for $2. Probably this low price of the book pains the Society but it sure makes my reference to maps an easy task without having to wake up my computer. The book occupies a permanent spot on a book stand in our breakfast room, standing ready to supply map information on request. The book happened to be open to the page showing the whole of Antarctica featuring all the outposts and even some commentary of scientific significance. One such comment was on ice coring data of historic temperatures and carbon dioxide content. I can understand how the CO2 content of the ice can be preserved over many centuries at varying depths, but I am unsure how the prevailing temperature of some thousand years ago can be preserved in the ice cores--but that's another issue that we will not get into here. So here is the comment on the data of the ice...

Aermotor Windmill Lives

The Aermotor windmill is probably the oldest iconic windmill In the United States today. We bought one that was very old at a seller's booth at the Round Top antique market. This was back in the late 1900s. So that makes it 20 years ago or so. We first erected this windmill In Fulshear in the backyard. We had to get Architectural Control Committee approval to do this. Because some of our neighbors may have some bad experiences with a neighboring windmill, we had to assure them that we would not let the brake slide and provide that nasty shrieking noise. Other than that, there was no objection to looking at a windmill. W e erected the windmill in Fulshear. It was quite a chore for us as we had no idea where all the parts fit together and how they were arranged. For example, we learned that the sail wheel with its struts is built with the same concept as a bicycle wheel with its spokes. After much head scratching and consulting the internet we had it to ...

NQ99HQ

Search This Blog