Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

MASONThe original portion of the Ingham County Jail is ready for the wrecking ball.

Built in the 1960s, the old jail will be completely torn down, the first sign of progress for the $70-million justice complex construction project. That portion of the jail was decommissioned more than a year ago as maintenance issues made it difficult to house inmates there, Chief Deputy Jason Ferguson said.

The complex is slated to open in mid-2023 and stay within cost estimates, Ferguson said.

We are currently doing very well with our budget, he said.

A rendering of the new Ingham County Justice Complex in Mason. The complex is expected to open in 2023.(Photo: Courtesy of the Ingham County Sheriff's Office)

Located adjacent to the current county complex on Cedar Street, the justice complex will house a new jail, the Sheriff's Department's administrative offices and 55th District Court facilities.

The jail, built in 1963, has outlived its useful lifeand is plagued with problems from flooding, deteriorating walls, and functional deficiencies, an evaluation found.

The new jail will have roughly 410 beds, a decline from the more than 600 the facility held decades ago, Ferguson said.

The Ingham County Jail in Mason, Michigan. Friday, Nov.13, 2020.(Photo: Robert Killips | Lansing State Journal)

The new complex will cover the parking lots and vacant land south of the jail and sheriffs administrative offices. Work on thebuildings' footings and underground utilities should start in early 2021.

Once the footings are down, it will go up pretty quickly, Ferguson said.

Precast concrete parts of the building will be installed late in 2021 and people will see the complex start moving upward in 2022.

"We're that close," Ferguson said.

The construction will not interrupt operations at the jail, courthouse or offices but will restrict some parking and roads in the area, Ferguson said.

The current courthouse, jail and sheriffs office will all be demolished once the new complex is open. The only structure that will remain is the mechanical building, which will house vehicle maintenance and a shooting range, Ferguson said.

Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth talks about the plan to build on to the existing facility near a recreation area no longer in use during a tour of the Ingham County Jail on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Mason. That portion of the jail will be demolished this year.(Photo: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

Ferguson said a team of people at the sheriffs Department and courts have worked together to design the interior layout of the building.

In August 2018, Ingham County voters agreed to a new justice millage, which was primarily designed to fund the design and construction of a new complex for the jail, Sheriffs Department and courts.

More: Voters approve millage for new Ingham County Jail, justice complex

The 0.85 of a mill raised about $6.2 million in its first year and means anan extra $42.50 in taxes annually per $100,000 of home value, according to Ingham County.

Aside from the building's construction, the millage has funded programs for inmates within the jail, Ferguson said. Those programs will grow once the new building is operational and the jail has more space, he said.

Contact reporter Craig Lyons at 517-377-1047 orcalyons@lsj.com.Follow him on Twitter @craigalyons.

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Jail demolition to clear the way for new Ingham justice complex - Lansing State Journal

Two local companies are planning to breathe new life into the Brookwood Village at Lakeshore Drive.

The new mixed-use district will have a public green space as its anchor, and this space will be surrounded by locally owned, upscale retailers; food and beverage options; new office buildings; hotels; and housing for both renters and homeowners. The plans include 350 high-end apartments.

The two companies under contract are an affiliated entity of Colliers International | Alabama, a leading real estate professional services and investment management company; and Arlington Properties, a leading multifamily development, property management, and construction firm. They announced their plans at the Oct. 26 Homewood City Council meeting.

Brookwood will be an accessible, regional destination that is vibrant, energetic, and bustling, and one that supports positive growth in Homewood, the companies said in a release. The multi-use property will be conceptualized and planned to withstand the test of time and to be conducive and beneficial to the natural evolution of the community and its needs.

Mark Stuermann, executive vice president of development at Arlington Properties, said he was attracted to the property because of what it meant tothe community.

People have very fond memories growing up there, he said. There are so many little memories that Ive heard about from people about how much they love Brookwood.

Its well-located real estate too, he said. Not only does the property have easy access to U.S. 280 and U.S. 31, it also sits between Jemison Trail and Shades Creek Greenway.

Despite these advantages, Brookwood Villages disadvantage is that it has been a single-use development. There are some offices on the property, but the development is mostly used for restaurants and retail.

When you have places that are designed for a single use, if the economy changes or peoples patterns change, then its no longer a fit, Stuermann said. There are some offices, but in general, its a massive retail facility.

Under the mixed-use plans, the hotel, offices, apartments and retail offerings will all be owned under separate, local entities. Before this deal, the mall has been entirely owned by one entity.

So if the hotel needs to change over time, that ownership group could change it, as opposed to having to redevelop the whole mall, he said.

The most important thing about a mixed-use development, Stuermann said, is it brings people there all day long. The plans include 350 apartments and between 80,000-120,000 square feet of office space.

Youll have 500 people living at Brookwood, and theyll walk on the trails. Theyll walk their dogs. Theyll wake up and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Theyll shop at Fresh Market. The office users will come in the mornings. Theyll get coffee at OHenrys. Theyll eat lunch. They may grab a drink with a colleague on their way home.

The hotel will have approximately 120 rooms, which means approximately 150 people could be staying at Brookwood Village each night.

The reason Brookwood worked was because it was a shopping destination and it brought people in. Were making it a destination again, and were going to also program it with lots of people to kind of activate it. It will be a place for people to live there, to work there and for the community.

The conceptual planning and rezoning process could be finished by spring 2021, the developers said in a statement. After that process is complete, construction could take 18-24 months.

Mark Stuermann of Arlington Properties and Joe Sandner IV of Colliers International held four community meetings in Homewood and took questions from the community. These were some of the frequently asked questions:

Q: How will the increased need of infrastructure affect our taxes?

Q: How long will the construction take from start to finish?

Q: How many jobs will be lost because of this project?

Q: Why are you building office space when so many offices are not being used due to COVID-19?

Q: Whats different about the retail that will be offered in the new project versus the retail in the current mall (which is clearly not doing well)?

Q: Will Macys get a face-lift to match the new project?

Q: Do you know what the makeup of the apartment units will be?

Q: How many units will there be?

Q: Why cant you come up with a plan that doesnt have any apartments?

See more here:
Mixed-use development in the works for Brookwood Village - thehomewoodstar.com

For people first setting out on the road to recovery from substance use disorders, waiting for space to open up in treatment can be a prohibitive barrier.

They might have no other choice than to wait it out in the same unhealthy environments they were in before. And the delay can be long, said Brandy Brink, founder and director of WEcovery, a local recovery nonprofit.

We have a wonderful state that offers many different treatment programs, but sometimes people are waiting a day, sometimes six weeks, and Ive heard of people waiting for up to three months, she said.

Brink hopes the addition of 13 pre-treatment beds in WEcoverys new Chestnut Street building will help bridge that gap for people until treatment.

The window of willingness is so small, she said. Thats why my hope in creating all of this is to get someone in a safe place surrounded by people who support the choice theyre making to make some changes in their life.

Alongside the pre-treatment support, the renovated building at 314 Chestnut St. is also about providing a continuum of care for people in recovery. One side of the building will have the pre-treatment housing for men and women, while the other side will serve as a recovery community center where people can go for meetings, peer recovery support and other events.

The new location replaces WEcoverys previous community center on Front Street. Having pre-treatment on one side and the center on the other means WEcovery could continue to provide support to people before and after treatment all in one building.

Theyll know somewhere to go once theyre out of treatment, Brink said. Our hope with all the things we do is were with them in the beginning, throughout and ongoing.

Transforming the building into its current use took about three months. APX Construction owns the building and renovated it, while Office Space Design donated furniture.

APX acquired the building after constructing new office space for Region V Computer Services on Excel Drive. Brink and APX Project Manager Joey Barr, whove known each other for years after going to school together, first started discussing the Chestnut Street buildings potential about seven or eight months ago.

At the time the building was still a big, windowless space with a bunch of offices. Brink appreciated the opportunity to walk through it but wasnt sure it would work as is for what she was envisioning.

So they started brainstorming what would be needed to make it work. Brink told them about her idea for a center on one side and pre-treatment housing on the other, and the designs were drawn up.

With many organizations moving into new buildings rather than into existing ones, APX has plenty of experience repurposing office space. Renovating can get expensive, Barr said, but cutting in windows in each room, adding showers and bathrooms, and knocking down walls to create kitchen and commons space worked out well.

The project also hit close to home for Barr and others at APX. Barr said experiences with family members showed him how needed the pre-treatment beds are.

I personally and some of the other people in our office have backgrounds and dealt with some of the things that Brandy is out there trying to help people out with, he said. Thats why its been a special project for us.

Once people see the proof of concept, he could see similar projects popping up elsewhere in the state to meet the need. Pre-treatment beds are currently a rare commodity.

Karen Klabunde, facility director at the Wellcome Manor inpatient treatment center for women in Garden City, called the pre-treatment beds a unique idea that could bring great value to the region. Many times, she said, clients are waiting for space to open up or for funding authorization to go through before entering treatment.

Theres a lag time between the time they call and when they arrive at our doorstep, she said. Its an extremely high-risk time and some of our clients get scared right up to the last minute.

Studies show being on a waitlist is one of the most common barriers for people seeking treatment. One 2006 analysis in the Journal of Drug Issues found substance users reported long wait times led some to give up on treatment or viewed their sobriety during the wait time as proof they no longer needed treatment.

Having a safe and sober place to go until treatment starts could help, Klabunde said. She also pointed out the good timing of the project during the pandemic, as concerns about substance use are ramped up with so many people struggling financially and mentally.

The pre-treatment beds are on track to be available in December, Brink said. An opening date will be announced later, with Brink planning virtual information sessions and open houses to alert agencies to the new resource.

She wouldnt be surprised if the beds are filled within a week of opening. The need is that great, she said.

Its very evident with us getting this close to the end that this program will be utilized and is needed, she said.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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Road to recovery: Pre-treatment beds coming to Mankato - Mankato Free Press

BOSTON Boston Seaport by WS Development and Turner Construction celebrated the ceremonial topping off of 111 Harbor Way (Block L4 of the Boston Seaport project), which will soon become home to Amazons new office in the heart of the Seaport neighborhood.

Slated for completion in 2021, 111 Harbor Way is a central component of WS Developments Boston Seaport project, spanning 33 acres across 20 city blocks.

111 Harbor Way is a 525,000 square foot, 17-story building with two stories devoted to retail and restaurant uses. Amazon will use 430,000 square feet of 111 Harbor Way for valuable office space and job creation as it expands its Boston Tech Hub and creates an additional 2,000 jobs, which were announced in 2018 in fields including machine learning, speech science, cloud computing, and robotics engineering.

Today marks an important milestone for a development project that delivers economic opportunities for many residents of Boston and generates investments in affordable housing and workforce training programs. I want to congratulate WS Development and the project team on achieving this milestone and look forward to welcoming over 2,000 new jobs to Boston when the building is completed, said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh.

In these uncertain times, it is ever more important to set our sights on Bostons bright future. This morning, we celebrate all that this building signifies for Seaport and for Boston job creation, economic empowerment, innovation, and the expansion of the public realm in our community. We are incredibly grateful to Amazon for their belief in Seaport, to Mayor Walsh and our partners in government for supporting our vision, and to our partners at Turner Construction and the skilled men and women of the Building Trades in Boston for their commitment to excellence and safety, said Yanni Tsipis, Senior Vice President, Seaport, WS Development.

WS Development chose esteemed architectural firm Gensler to envision and design the tower. In a collaboration between its Boston and San Francisco offices, Gensler respected the authentic industrial context of the Seaport, creating a building that has a timeless aesthetic and a highly articulated expression. The buildings design emphasizes human-focused elements, including outdoor terraces on alternating floors and the Paseo, a street-level interior public promenade lined with shops, cafes, and a welcoming central amphitheater.

The Paseo will lead pedestrians to a new one-acre public space being constructed concurrently with the building, which will expand the public realm in the Seaport and create a vibrant new open space hub. This new park is a focal point of the future Harbor Way, a 1/3-mile public promenade that will connect Summer Street to the waters edge a plan conceived of by the world-renowned landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations, well known for their work on Manhattans High Line. The park will create a hub of community activity across all seasons, hosting hundreds of public events annually including art, music performances and markets.

Related

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WS Development and Turner Construction Celebrate the Topping Off of 111 Harbor Way, Amazon's New Office in Seaport - Boston Real Estate Times

By Rich Larson, News Director

The Northfield School Board resumed the conversation surrounding the Northfield High School Raiders mascot.

The drawing that currently represents the Northfield Raiders has come under

The Northfield Raider mascot. The sword was removed from the image a few years ago. (courtesy Tim Freeland)

question, and more than a bit of fire in recent years, with many people questioning both its relevancy to the Raiders name and the nature of the image itself.

Northfield Superintendent of schools, Dr. Matt Hillmann said yesterday that the current mascot has been in place for 64 years, and it is probably time for a change.

The current mascot was selected in 1956. A Northfield High School student created that mascot as part of a contest. And there are a lot of legends about the motivation behind how that original came to be, and we know that many people have really appreciated it over the years. We also know that 64 years later, its probably time to look at doing a refresh of that mascot.

Over the years, students at Northfield High School have taken to calling it the Racist Raider, and last February members of the High School student council formally asked the school board to look at making a change. Hillmann conceded yesterday that the mascot has cartoonish and accentuated facial features that are concerning.

So, theres two parts to this. Its time to do a refresh and we also need to make sure that the things that represent the school district are inclusive of the people who we represent in the community.

Dr. Hillmann has proposed a motion for the next school board meeting on December 14th that would direct the Northfield High School administration to begin a process and take submissions for a new mascot. Those submissions would be welcome from both students and non-student members of the community, and to select from those submissions up to four different options for consideration. The strongest consideration, he said, would be given to conceptual designs that make the most direct connection to the origin of the Raider name, and how the community did defeat the James Younger Gang when they attempted to rob the Northfield First national Bank in 1876. He also said that there would be some parameters surrounding the submissions, foremost among them would be no weaponry associated with the new mascot.

While some may question the timing of this discussion when so many other challenges are facing the school district right now, he said it is important to take up discussions like this one because there is still work to be done, and we need to keep moving forward.

Hillmann said there are already plans to memorialize the current mascot, should the school decide to make a change.

Construction projects nearing conclusion

Northfield Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann

The Superintendent also said that a flurry of construction and re-modeling projects in the public school facilities is approaching conclusion.

The new Greenvale Park school building is basically complete, he said. There are just a few details to work out.

There are still some punch list items. Anybody who has ever moved into a new house, or youve built something, over the first year that youre there you see things [that make you say] Oh, we should adjust that or That didnt turn out exactly the way we expected. And thats something we planned, and so we continue to work through that punch list as things arise with our friends from Knutson Construction.

Those interested in seeing what the new school looks like can take a virtual walkthrough tour of school by visiting the construction page on the schools website, or by clicking HERE.

Hillmann also said the school offices at the Longfellow school should be complete in 4-6 weeks.

To hear Superintendent Hillmanns full conversation with Jeff Johnson, click HERE.

Dundas City Council approves sale of old City Hall

And the Dundas City Council Monday night approved the sale of the old Dundas City Hall.

Dundas City administrator Jenelle Teppen said yesterday that the council members went into closed session after the public meeting on Monday and approved the sale of the building to Northfield attorney Dan Irwin for $70,000. Teppen said Irwin intends to move his law office into the building.

Dundas opened a brand new City Hall in September.

More here:
Northfield School Board to take up mascot conversation; School construction nearly complete; Dundas approves sale of old city hall - kymnradio.net

More than 40 years since setting up shop in a rented warehouse as the modern worlds first biotech company, Roches Genentech is now up for a major expansion at its South San Francisco home in California.

Tuesday, the local city council approved Genentechs expansion proposal, which aims to almost double its headquarters building space to 9 million square feet from the current 4.7 million square feet.

That extra buildout, all within the boundary of its existing 207-acre campus, allows the Roche unit to add as many as 12,550 employees at the HQ on top of the 10,000 or so who are there right now, according to the master plan (PDF).

Of course, the development wont happen overnight. The company describes it as a vision or guideline for potential future growth, rather than an indication of immediate changes or expansion to the existing campus.

In fact, the blueprint covers 15 years, and the new hiresif they eventually happenwill span the next several decades, the companysaid in the master plan. Plus, construction of any individual new buildings, details for which are expected over the next 20 years or so, will require separate approvals.

RELATED:The top 15 pharma companies by 2026 sales | 1. Roche

The additional building space could be used for a variety of functions including R&D, manufacturing, infrastructure, office, on-campus amenitiesandemployee support, according to Genentech.

Through the level-up, Genentech said it intends to maintain its current ratio of lab-to-office space; they now each makeup roughly one-third of the total building space. As for on-campus manufacturing, which now occupies a little less than 1.3 million square feet, the company expects it to be retained but not substantially expanded, with possibly some potential redesign or reconfiguration. That being said, the master plan intentionally permits some flexibility in how the company allocates space to each function.

As part of the expansion, Genentech expects to shell out more than $250 million in city fees and investment in South San Franciscos transportation, housing and community programs.

RELATED:Roche drops $500M into new global operations hub, with 500 jobs to follow

Genentech settled in South San Francisco in 1978. Thanks to the biotech industry, the city prospered even after its steel industry died. The Genentech site, where Bethlehem Steel used to stand, has already added about 2 million square feet of building space from the previous 2007 master plan to the current 4.7 million square feet.

Aside from the Genentech site, Roche recently unveiled a plan to invest $500 million over five years to establish a global technical operations center at its Canadian pharma headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario.

Read more from the original source:
Roche's Genentech cleared for massive headquarters expansion that will add up to 4.3M square feet - FiercePharma

We all need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and realize that the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is one of us. As we settle into month eight of staying at home, working from home, sheltering in place, quarantining, and every variation of the words that redefined what "normal life" has looked like in the year 2020, we, as a nation, should hold the Norway spruce to the same standards that we hold ourselves to. You know, rolling out of bed and immediately signing into work meetings, jeans collecting dust in the back of our closets what even is a hairbrush? You see where we're going here.

On Nov. 14, the famed Christmas tree arrived at Rockefeller Center after a two-day drive, and people had the audacity to judge its appearance. Sure, she was missing a few branches and immediately got the meme treatment as a stark representation of the year we're all having, but she's doing her best! According to the New York Times, it's normal for the tree to look like this after being wrapped tightly during travel. It will "take the branches time to settle." Also, after arriving in New York City, employees discovered an adorable little owl had been chilling in the branches. It's unknown how long the owl had been in there, but he's now in good hands at a wildlife rehab facility. Just like us, the 2020 tree is going through it!

The "symbol of hope" before the holidays looked more like an anticlimactic shrub straight out of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but let's give our girl some time to freshen up! She'll get her lights, her extensions, her glitz, and her glamour just in time for the Dec. 2 lighting ceremony, the same way we will when we're ready to reenter society. Glow up, girl, we believe in you! Check out some funny reactions to the tree ahead, including one from the Rockefeller Center Twitter account who said it best: "Wow, you all must look great right after a two-day drive, huh? Just wait until I get my lights on! See you on December 2! ;)."

Visit link:
We're All the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree This Year - POPSUGAR

Prescribed burning by Forest Service. Photo by George Wuerthner

There has been a spate of articles in various newspapers and magazines asserting that if the Forest Service were following burning practices of Indigenous people the large wildfires we have seen around the West would be tamed.

Here are some representative of Indian burning will save the forest articles.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/23/karuk-tribe-california-slater-fire-insurance

https://www.vox.com/first-person/21517619/california-wildfires-indigenous-controlled-burns

https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/10/07/oregons-indigenous-communities-know-how-to-stop-megafires-will-the-state-let-them/?utm_campaign=2020-10-07+WildNews&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Pew

The October 7th 2020 article Wildfires have ravaged the Western United States this year, sending firefighting experts to Indigenous communities for guidance by Jim Cowan in the New York Times is typical of the erroneous assertions about Native American burning and its influence on large wildfires..

Long before California was California, Native Americans used fire to keep the lands where they lived healthy. That meant intentionally burning excess vegetation at regular intervals, during times of the year when the weather would keep blazes smaller and cooler than the destructive wildfires burning today.

And the Guardian article, like most of these recent publications, implies that the loss of native burning is contributing to large blazes: a century of practicing fire suppression over traditional tribal land stewardship, has led to larger, more destructive wildfires.

The idea that tribal burning impacted the broad landscape is asserted by some scholars (Williams, G.W. 2004), but often with scant evidence to back up these claims except for oral traditions of Native people.

MAJOR ISSUES

MYTH OF INDIAN LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT

As Barrett et al. 2005 noted: For many years, the importance of fire use by American Indians in altering North American ecosystems was underappreciated or ignored. Now, there seems to be an opposite trend. It is common now to read or hear statements to the effect that American Indians fired landscapes everywhere and all the time, so there is no such thing as a natural ecosystem. A myth of human manipulation everywhere in pre-Columbus America is replacing the equally erroneous myth of a totally pristine wilderness.

We believe that it is time to deflate the rapidly spreading myth that American Indians altered all landscapes by means of fire. In short, we believe that the case for landscape-level fire use by American Indians has been dramatically overstated and overextrapolated.

Noss, et al. 2014 asserts: Despite ample evidence that lightning fire was a primary ecological driver in the NACP [North American Coastal Plain], the myth persists that most fires before the arrival of Europeans were set by Native Americans. For example, Mann (2005; 361) provides a map that shows essentially the entire pre-Columbian NACP, including the lightning-riddled Gulf coast and Florida peninsula, as dominated by anthropogenic fire or with widespread forest clearing for agriculture. No evidence is offered to support these claims.

Most evidence for the widespread influence of indigenous burning is based on oral tradition which is notoriously subject to variation of interpretation and misinterpretation.

DID INDIGENOUS BURNING PRECLUDE LARGE BLAZES?

The question is not whether Indian burning occurred, but rather to what extent it influenced the landscape as the whole and precluded the occurrence of large mixed to high severity blazes or what some people term mega fires. Is it a panacea for precluding large blazes as implied? Furthermore, it needs into the notion that high severity blazes are somehow unnatural and ecologically destructive.

The idea that fire suppression has led to some fuel build up in some plant communities is accurate, but fuel build-up is not the primary cause of large high severity blazes. Most of these blazes are burning in plant communities like lodgepole pine, spruce/fire, juniper, and other plant communities that naturally had long intervals between fire events and naturally accumulate fuels. In other words, fuel build-up in these plant communities is completely natural.

Mountain hemlock, like many forest communities has naturally long fire intervals and fuel build up is completely natural in such communities. Photo by George Wuerthner

There is ample evidence that Indian burning had little effect upon the occurrence of large fires on the landscape. Except for some high-use areas, Indian burning did not significantly alter fuels across the landscape; more importantly, it did not preclude larger blazes.

Large mega fires have occurred for thousands of years, and Indigenous burning did not preclude them. Plus, the idea that low severity fires dominated western landscapes ignores the fact that numerous species depend on the high severity snag forests that result from large high severity blazes. The second-highest biodiversity after old growth forests is found in the snag forests and down wood that results from these blazes. These high severity habitats would simply not exist if such Indigenous burning were as successful as advocates suggest

.The snag forest that results from large blazes is critical habitat for many species and has the second highest biodiversity after old growth forests. Photo by George Wuerthner

Indeed, the effectiveness of fire suppression can be questioned. For instance, in the early part of the 20th Century, as much as 50 million acres burned annually in the United States during several drought decades. https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html

https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_statistics.html

LIVING WITH FIRE

Just as today, wildfire was a natural force that influenced where people lived. One of the ways tribal people lived with fire was to locally reduce fuels so as to safeguard their villages, trading centers, and traditional gathering areas from large dangerous blazes.

This is the model that we should be promoting todayworking from the home outward to reduce local flammability of homes and edge of communities.

Since most tribal people lived in lower elevation landscapes like valley bottoms with grasslands or dry ponderosa pine forests where wildfire was naturally more frequent, Indigenous burning likely favored the continued existence and even expansion of these plant communities.

It is important to note that these community types are often a small percentage of the landscape. For instance, dry montane forests (largely ponderosa pine) make up only 4% of western Montana and northern Idaho. http://www.northernrockiesfire.org/drymont.htm

Pondoersa pine is a common dry forest species. Photo by George Wuerthner

Cultural burning was also done for a variety of other purposes as well. To create favorable conditions for the growth specific plant foods that might be favored by fire, to create fresh new growth of grasses and other plants favored by wildlife like deer, elk or bison. Fires were also used in warfare to burn out enemies that might be hiding in dense brush.Camas roots were among the plants that Indian burning sought to increase. Photo by George Wuerthner

However, the question remains as to whether this cultural burning was sufficient to change fire regimes across the landscape to the point it precluded larger wildfires.

While there is no doubt that Indigenous burning was widely practiced, the idea that cultural burning was a major influence on landscape-scale fire influences is questionable.

There are multiple lines of evidence to suggest that Indian burning likely was local in nature and did not affect the larger landscape.

FUELS DONT DRIVE LARGE FIRES

Perhaps the biggest problem with the Indigenous burning will preclude large blazes is that it feeds into the narrative that fuels are driving the large fires we see around the West. The problem with this explanation is that large fires are primarily climate-weather driven events-and have always been a consequence of climate-weather. There is abundant coloration between extensive drought and large landscape fires. Conversely, during periods of wet, cool climates, there are fewer large blazes.

If you have severe drought, low humidity, high temperatures, and most importantly wind, you get large landscape fires. If you do not have these weather/climate conditions, you get fewer ignitions, smaller fires that mostly self-extinguish.

While Indian burning likely did influence fuel loading in some localized areas, it did not change the basic weather/climate ingredients that drive all large blazes (Whitlock, C et al. 2010).

Furthermore, unless you have these extreme fire weather conditions, you simply will not get large acreages to burn.

CLIMATE/WEATHER DRIVES LARGE BLAZES

First, most cultural burning, like the prescribed fires set today by state and federal agencies, was practiced in the spring and fall when fire spread was limited by moist fuels, high humidity, cool temperatures and when winds are calm. High fuel moisture and cool temperatures limits fire spread. In other words, you will not burn very much acreage. Under such conditions, most fires simply self-extinguish and are difficult to maintain.

Despite the implied notion in some of the above articles that somehow the Forest Service is ignorant of burning practices, this is the same reason federal and state agencies usually do prescribe burning during these seasons.

By contrast, all our larger landscape fires occur during extreme fire weather conditions which is typically in the summer and early fall months. These include extreme drought, low humidity, high temperatures, and most importantly wind.

Why is this important? Because most fires, even natural fires, are small. Unless you have these extreme fire weather conditions, 97-99% of all fires will burn 1-5 acres even if you dont suppress them. Whether the ignitions are from lightning or humans, if you dont have the right weather conditions, you will not burn a significant amount of the landscape.

For instance, a total of 56,320 fires burned over 9 million acres in the Rocky Mountains between 1980-2003. 98% of these fires (55,220) burned less than 500 acres and accounted for 4% of the area burned. By contrast, Only, 2% of all fires accounted for 96% the acreage burned. And 0.1% (50) of blazes were responsible for half of the acres charred. (Baker 2009 Fire Ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes).

In another example, between 1972 and 1987 Yellowstone National Park did not suppress backcountry fires. During this period, there were 235 blazes. Of these 222 charred less than 5 acres, and most burned less than 1 acre. And all 235 blazes self-extinguished.

Then in 1988 more than a million acres burned in Yellowstone. Did fuels suddenly balloon overnight to sustain large high severity blazes? The reason Yellowstone burned in 1988 was that it was the driest year on record since the park was established, with humidity as low as 1-2% and winds exceeding 50 mph.

Even large, high severity blazes burn in a mosaic pattern seen here in the aftermath of the 1988 Yellowstone fires. Photo by George Wuerthner

Thus, it would require setting thousands of these small fires when the climate/weather is not conducive for fire spread to burn any substantial amount of the landscape. So, the idea that Indian burning which can be characterized as primarily low severity frequent fires were of sufficient size and scale to affect larger landscapes is questionable just based on the timing of such ignitions.

Native people were wise enough not to purposely set fires in the middle of extreme fire weather. Setting a blaze under conditions with variable high winds, and during a drought was a recipe for disaster because it easily leads to uncontrollable fires that would threaten villages and life.

ECOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Most of the plant communities in the West tend to naturally have long to very long fire rotations, of many decades to hundreds of years in length. This includes aspen, most fir species, mountain hemlock, western hemlock, west-side Douglas fir, chaparral, sagebrush, juniper-pinyon, lodgepole pine, white pine, western larch, and various spruce species.

This means wildfire historically did not burn in these communities except at infrequent intervals almost always dictated by climate/weather.

During extreme weather conditions, the relative importance of fuels diminishes since all stands achieve the threshold required to permit crown fire development. This is important since most of the area burned in subalpine forests has historically occurred during very extreme weather (i.e., drought coupled to high winds). The fire behavior relationships predicted in the models support the concept that forest fire behavior is determined primarily by weather variation among years rather than fuel variation associated with stand age (Bessie, and Johnson 1995).

Many of these species have few adaptations to withstand frequent fires and would simply not exist if tribal burning affected them.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR LARGE BLAZES

Though most fire ecologists concede that native burning likely declined after European American settlement due to native population decline resulting from disease, warfare and displacement, there is plenty of evidence for large fires before large scale Euro American occupation.

For instance, in Oregons Willamette Valley most large trees were established after large, high severity fires that occurred long before Euro-American influences on native populations. The 1865 Silverton Fire burned more a million acres of the western Cascades. The 1853 Yaquina Fire burned nearly a half million acres. Recent records from Washington estimate that a series of large fires in 1701 may have burned between 3 and 10 million acres in a single summer. To quote from a recent article on fires in Washington state: 1701 is given as the best estimate for the last devastating fire that occurred throughout Western Washington, a fire that burned an estimated 3 million to 10 million acres. At the upper end of that range, the area is roughly equal to 10 Olympic National Parks. (https://www.pugetsoundinstitute.org/2020/05/western-washington-wildfire-what-are-we-facing-this-year-and-beyond/).

Although individual accounts can vary, the detail of the observer can provide some hint of the accuracy of early accounts. For instance, David Douglas, (for whom Douglas Fir is named) traveled down the Willamette Valley in 1826 carefully noting the vegetation from the Hudson Bay Post at Fort Vancouver across from present day Portland. Douglas reported seeing burnt patches but noted that most were small (Knox and Whitlock 2002).

Peter Skene Ogden noted extensive areas of burns in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon and attributed it to natives. But there is no way for Ogden to know whether the fires were human ignitions or due to lightning.

On the other hand, numerous travelers who kept meticulous notes like Lewis and Clark and John Fremont seldom mention encountering Indian burning. The absence of evidence is not the same as no evidence, nevertheless, when someone like Lewis and Clark or John Fremont fail to report extensive Indian burning, it does raise a cautionary note about how to interpret historic accounts.

The other consideration is that Douglas, like most people traveling through the landscape, used the Indian trails and natural travel routes, and since human occupation is greatest in such areas, it may provide a bias view of the occurrence of human ignitions. Even today the majority of wildfires occur near roads. Also, since most of these areas were dominated by grasslands and low elevation dry pines where fire is more frequent even today, does not provide support for wider influence of human burning on the landscape.

FIRE STUDY TECHNIQUES GIVE A BETTER LANDSCAPE SCALE PICTURE OF FIRE

Beyond just historic accounts of fires, there is proxy evidence for past fire occurrence. Scientists use various methods to determine the fire history of any location.

The scientific evidence for historic fire regimes is based on a few different methods. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages (Whitlock et al 2004).

The most common method for reconstructing fire history are fire scars, but other methods including use of charcoal and pollen, among other techniques result in different perspectives.

When a fire burns through an area at low severity (i.e. typically does not kill mature trees), it can leave a scar in the surviving trees. The scar eventually heals and is recorded in the tree rings. By examining tree rings, one can count the years between fires, and in some cases even determine the season of the burn. Thisthe most popular method of determining fire histories.

Fire scar on a ponderosa pine. Photo by George Wuerthner

There are, however, some problems with fire scar methods that some researchers believe results in an overestimation of fire frequency and influence (see Baker and Ehle 2001). For more detail on the problems of fire scar historical reconstructions see (Wuerthner 2018) https://www.thewildlifenews.com/2018/07/14/fire-scar-historical-reconstructions-accurate-or-flawed/

Ecologically speaking, from a landscape perspective, it is the larger fires that significantly influence both vegetative communities as well as the fuels available for mega fires.

There have been numerous studies that have looked at Indian burning and its influence on fire regimes. Most work done by fire ecologists who focus on large landscape fires do not find any additive influence from Indigenous burning. Rather climate/weather appears to control periods of significant wildfire activity (Baker W.L. 2002).

In other words, they find evidence for more frequent fires during major droughts and in the immediate area of villages, along major travel corridors, trading centers, and other high use areas, but across the landscape as whole, they do not find evidence that human ignitions were additive to total landscape acreage charred by wildfire.

The best way, in my view, to document whether human ignitions were an important influence for landscape scale fires is to use charcoal or pollen studies. But other techniques such as air photo, General Land Office (GLO) surveys, and even historic accounts of early Euro Americans can also provide insights.

Charcoal studies are a proxy for wildfires that rely on examination of core drillings in lakes and ponds to extract sediments where charcoal from major wildfires are recorded. By examining such cores, researchers can document the larger wildfires in a landscape going back thousands of years.

Pollen from the same core samples also documents the major vegetation present in surrounding lands.

To give another example, one can show that Indian burning was more frequent in the Yosemite Valley where Indian people resided much of the year, but not evidence for wide-spread human burning in the majority of what is now Yosemite Valley or the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a whole (Vale 1998).

For instance, Vachula et al 2019 did a study of Yosemite National Park where historically large Indigenous communities resided. Their research found a direct correlation between climate and the amount of burning on the landscape.

View of Yosemite Valley, Bridalveil Falls and El Capitan. Yosemite NP, CA. George Wuerthner

We analyzed charcoal preserved in lake sediments from Yosemite National Park and spanning the last 1400 years to reconstruct local and regional area burned. Warm and dry climates promoted burning at both local and regional scales

Regional area burned peaked during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and declined during the last millennium, as climate became cooler and wetter and Native American burning declined.

Our record indicates that (1) climate changes influenced burning at all spatial scales, (2) Native American influences appear to have been limited to local scales, but (3) high Miwok populations resulted in fire even during periods of climate conditions unfavorable to fires. However, at the regional scale (< 150 km from the lake), fire was generally controlled by the top-down influence of climate. (Vachula et al 2019)

In another study in the Willamette Valley found that the mean fire interval in Oregons Coast Range was 230 years and the presence of fire sensitive species like Sitka spruce indicates a lack of frequent fire (Knox and Whitlock 2002).

Sitka spruce in Oregons coast range. Fire was infrequent in these forests due to high moisture and cool temperatures. Photo by George Wuerthner

Regarding Indigenous ignitions in the Willamette Valley, Whitlock notes: The idea that Native Americans burned from one end of the valley to the other is not supported by our data, says Whitlock. Most fires seem to have been fairly localized, and broad changes in fire activity seem to track large-scale variations in climate she says. (Fire Science 2010).

In other charcoal study of Washingtons Battle Ground Lake, Megan Walsh (Walsh et al 2008) concluded that Fire frequency was highest during the middle Holocene when oak savanna and prairie were widespread near Battle Ground Lake. She suggests: The vegetation and fire conditions were most likely the result of warmer and drier conditions compared with the present, not from human use of fire (Fire Science 2010).

Hoffman et al. 2016 looked at Indian burning influence in coastal British Columbia and concluded: fires. At the decadal scale, fires were more likely to occur after positive El Nio-Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation phases and exhibited 30-year periods of synchrony with the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation. Fire frequency was significantly inversely correlated with the distance from former Indigenous habitation sites.

Though the Karuk and other tribes in northern Californias Siskiyou Mountains assert that their traditional burning precluded large fires, and fire suppression of native burning practices contributed to the large high severity blazes now burning the region. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/23/karuk-tribe-california-slater-fire-insurance

Columbaroil and Gavin (2002) documented that large fires always occurred in the Siskiyou Mountains, primarily due to climate/weather, even during the pre-European period. Fire is a primary mode of natural disturbance in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Increased fuel loads following fire suppression and the occurrence of several large and severe fires have led to the perception that in many areas there is a greatly increased risk of high-severity fire compared with presettlement forests. To reconstruct the variability of the fire regime in the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon, we analyzed a 10-m, 2,000-y sediment core for charcoal, pollen, and sedimentological data. The record reveals a highly episodic pattern of fire in which 77% of the 68 charcoal peaks before Euro-American settlement

Biscuit Burn Illinois River Rouge Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon Photo by George Wuerthner

Odion et al. (2004) (Conservation Biology), conducted in a 98,814-hectare area burned in 1987 in the California Klamath region, found that the most fire-suppressed forests in this area (areas that had not burned since at least 1920) burned at significantly lower severity levels, likely due to a reduction in combustible native shrubs as forests mature and canopy cover increases: The hypothesis that fire severity is greater where previous fire has been long absent was refuted by our studyThe amount of high-severity fire in long-unburned closed forests was the lowest of any proportion of the landscape and differed from that in the landscape as a whole (Z = -2.62, n = 66, p = 0.004).

Early timber surveys also record large high severity fires (Leiberg, J. B. 1903).

Contrary studies that presume to substantiate a major influence of Indian burning tend to focus on major village sites, foraging areas, and other areas of high human use where no doubt Indigenous burning was additive to the background fire regime.

Unfortunately, this evidence of increased burning is then extrapolated to the larger landscape where human activities were less frequent. A good example is a study by Kimaszewki -Patterson (2019) who looked at Indian burning in a meadow of the southern Sierra Nevada, and then inferred this represented the fire regime of the southern Sierra Nevada.

This is the same error made by William Cronon in his book Changes in the Land (Cronon 1983) about Indian burning in New England. Cronons conclusions were challenged by Parshall and Forester 2002. The major factor influencing the distribution of fire across New England is climate, which has a direct effect on the physical conditions conducive to fire ignition and spread and an indirect effect on fire through its control on the distribution of vegetation at this spatial scale. We find evidence that other factors exert some control over local fire regimes as well including landforms and their impact on vegetation composition, firebreaks and prevailing winds. Native Americans likely influenced the local occurrence of fire, but their impact on regional fire regimes in New England is not apparent from this or other studies.

More recent review of the evidence by David Foster of the Harvard Experimental Forest came to the deduction that Native American burning was localized (Oswald et al. 2020). The researchers conclude: Our new research, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, tests this human-centric view of the past using interdisciplinary, retrospective science. The data we collected suggest, in New England, this assumption is erroneous.

Our study contradicts the theory that people had significant ecological impacts in southern New England before European arrival. Instead, it reveals that old forests, shaped by climate change and natural processes, prevailed across the region for thousands of years.

The lush green of eastern decidious forests precludes large blazes except during exceptional drought. Photo by George Wuerthner

Read the original:
Indigenous Burning Myths and Realities - The Wildlife News

1. Pay Your Respects At The Reflecting Pools

As you approach the museum, youll arrive first at the outdoor memorial. The memorial pays tribute to those who lost their lives here.

The twin reflecting pools, each nearly an acre, feature the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. The names of the men, women, and children killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, are inscribed in bronze on the edges of the pools. More people were killed in the 9/11 attacks than in any other attack on American soil. That fateful day also saw the greatest loss of rescue personnel in the history of the country.

This is a place to reflect on name after name, each someones family or friend, and all deserving remembrance.

An audio guide that details the events of 9/11, the victims, and the design of the memorial is available. You can also use the guide to locate the name of a loved one.

One pear tree was discovered still living in the rubble of the towers. With its broken branches and roots, it was dug up and planted outside what is now the museum. It has since flourished among the many other trees that have been planted in the plaza. A plaque declares that the tree is a living reminder of resilience, survival, and rebirth.

See more here:
11 Moving Experiences At The 9/11 Memorial & Museum - TravelAwaits

Keith Vandervort

ELY City Council members received a near-final draft of an ordinance providing for the licensing of short-term rentals. A public hearing is scheduled for next month to allow the public to weigh in before final approval.City Attorney Kelly Klun said the ordinance has been in the works for more than two years. Klun added that consultations with St. Louis County and the Minnesota Department of Health to incorporate their rules and regulations were also part of the ordinance. The citys building official was also consulted in drafting the ordinance.The purpose of the ordinance is to regulate vacation or short-term rentals within the city, and to allow property owners to offer their property for rent for a period of less than 30 days.The draft ordinance stipulates:Property owners are required to obtain a permit from the city for all short-term rentals. A license from the Minnesota Department of Health is required for each short-term rental unit.Short-term rentals are required to pay city lodging taxes.Short-term rental licenses are required in Zones R-1, R-2, RT and SMU (Shoreland Multiple Use). Short-term licenses are not required in C-1 and C-2 and for previously licensed lodging establishments.Occupancy by use of recreational vehicles, tents, garages, sheds, and other structures is not allowed.Limits on occupancy are required.Council members approved the first reading of the short-term rental ordinance on a 5-2 vote. Council members Paul Kess and Angela Campbell voted against the measure.Kess objected to allowing short-term rentals in R-1 Zoning areas.If we allow rentals in these (residential) areas, it changes the character of the neighborhood, he said. There is the potential for constant changeover for people who live right next door. Suddenly there is a short-term hotel right next to you that you have no control over. He also mentioned public safety, traffic, noise, and other disturbance factors in his objections.Kess also asserted that as more and more houses are switched over to short-term rentals, fewer dwellings become available for long-term rental.It is difficult now in Ely to find an apartment, he said. If we allow this to happen everywhere in the citys R-1 districts, it will be more and more difficult to live in Ely.He also noted that the short-term rental ordinance is unfair to the commercial lodging establishments in the city. A public hearing on the proposed ordinance will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 4:30 p.m. in City Hall.

Other businessIn other business, the city council: Approved a recommendation from the Heritage Preservation Commission to accept a retaining wall design for the Pioneer Mine Site. Accepted the Planning and Zoning Commissions recommendation to review the COVID-19 plan for the Ely Winter Festival before allowing the event to be held next February. Accepted the resignation of Adam Borchert from the Ely Police Department. He accepted a similar law enforcement position with the Lake County Sheriffs Department. Approved paying $15,000 to Premier Pyrotechnics for the Fourth of July fireworks in 2021. Approved a temporary liquor license to the Ely Folk School for an event on Dec. 12 at Semers Park. Approved a resolution authorizing the Ely Blue Line Club to apply for a raffle permit.

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Ely zeros in on short-term rental ordinance - Tower Timberjay News