VWA Willow Creek Restoration Project
Project Update
November 8, 2004

On November 8, 2004, eight Forest Service fire crew members led by Chip Laugharn, Fire Prevention Technician at the Pacific Valley Station, hiked into the McGranahan Cabin site to burned the milled lumber from the suspension bridge and lapidary shop. Early rains had sufficiently wetted the area to allow the burn. In fact the runoff from the recent rains had raised Willow Creek enough to make the crew's crossing a more than usual challenge. When Chip's crew got to the burn piles that VWA volunteers had assembled a month earlier, they found clusters of lady bugs covering portions of the burn pile. Rather than roast these pretty beetles alive, crew members gingerly removed those boards with the lady bugs and set them aside. The crew packed in a portable pump and other gear to insure no fire would escape the fire safety zone. But the burn went as planned and nothing more was needed than some attention from the crew's bladder bags to safely burn all of the milled lumber. Before they left for the day, the crew doused the fires to insure they were dead out. The following day, a couple members of the fire crew hiked back in to the site to verify that all was well at the McGranahan site.