Bill Lynch: Vineyards as fire barriers?

That early-morning in October of 2017 when a police officer drove down our street blasting “Get out now!” on his patrol car loudspeaker is burned in my memory (no pun intended).

In minutes, Dottie and I and my mother-in-law, who was sheltering with us, and our lab, Annie, were in the car and headed south, away from the fires that threatened our town. We were the lucky ones. There were alerts the night before, and we already had some of our most valued things in the car.

More than 24 hours before the night the fires came close to us, many of our friends and fellow valley residents had barely escaped with the clothes on their backs. Their homes were gone.

On the night we evacuated, the fire was approaching from the Buena Vista area of the valley northeast of town. We were close enough to hear the sounds of the fire engines and other equipment being used to make a stand. Thanks to those brave men and women in the fire service, it didn’t get into Sonoma proper.

Days later, after the mop-up was complete, we were back out on our usual walks around the vineyards on the northeastern boundary of Sonoma. We could see how close the flames came.

It caused me to wonder, “What if the fire fighters had not been successful? Would the acres of vineyards between us and that hillside blaze have protected our neighborhood and given fire fighters a spot from which to make a second stand?”

The answer is probably yes. Vintners throughout California have witnessed the effectiveness of grapevines as natural fire breaks. In the 2017 fires, there were many reports of fast-moving blazes burning, or damaging, the first few rows of a vineyard, and then stopping.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about Ken Wilson of Soda Rock Winery in the Anderson Valley, northern Sonoma County who said, “Basically, it burned to the vineyards and then stopped…The vineyards did a good job of stopping the advance of the fire.”

S. Kaan Kutural, UC Davis professor of viticulture and oenology, commenting on why grapevines combat fire said, “Vines are green and full of water…With the amount of water they can hold in their tissue, they become an oasis in a hot environment.”

He said that by contrast to brushy forests loaded with dry fuel, vineyards are also manicured and aggressively pruned, all of which removes more fuel.

So Could Sonoma Valley residents in vulnerable areas, remove some of the natural trees and brush on their property and plant as many rows of grapevines as they could? Would that be even better than simply clearing the brush?

I’m just wondering.

If you’ve ever driven up into our hills on any of the little winding woodland roads, you noted how thick the trees and brush are on both sides. In fact, in many places they form a virtual tunnel, which could become a tunnel of white hot flame in a wildfire.

What if those trees and brush were replaced with wide rows of grapevines? Costly? Yes. More costly than a devastating wildfire? Maybe not.

There is a lot of talk now about reducing the “fuel load” in our forests, and what a huge and overwhelming task that will be.

It seems to me that it will take a long time for the state to do it all. Perhaps we wine country folk can get started on our own fire protection projects with the selective planting of vineyards, particular on our northeast and eastern borders, the direction from which the terrible devil winds of autumn descend on us.

Just wondering.