​At Live Oaks Ranch, there is one road that provides access into and out of the property. In order to gain access to the farmstead, and the two occupied residences within it, vehicles must cross a bridge over Bidwell Creek. During the summer and early fall, we successfully replaced the failing, eroding concrete and culvert crossing with a new free-span bridge. The environmental benefits to this project are many: reduced erosion for better water quality, improved aquatic wildlife passage, reestablishment of the natural flow and quality of the stream, and more. But what I’m writing about today is a different aspect of the project.

Five of my friends, most with families, lost their homes in the recent Sonoma County wildfires. With the staggering losses that seem to have touched everyone in the county in some way, it would be easy to view fire as something monstrous, and I couldn’t blame you. An event of this scale is sure to cause a shift in our perceptions. To make this shift more of a beneficial one, however, I encourage everyone to examine our historic relationship to fire as it spans from time immemorial. That relationship was once healthy and productive for people and the landscape alike, and no doubt can be healthy and productive once more.