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Save Bouquet Canyon


 A new High Tension Power Line is planned for Bouquet Canyon.

Canyon Residents and informed experts - including a retired Fire Chief -are concerned that this line will allow a Regional Fire to incubate.

This is not an idle concern, more than 70 fires in Angeles Crest Forest have been started by power lines in the past 5 years.

Canyon Fires are notoriously hard to control, and can quickly become regional fires.

"They've got it exactly backwards!" We interviewed a retired Fire Chief from San Diego County and himself an ex forest firefighter ( Marvin Keogh of Lancaster). He says the approved plan is the worst possible. His explanation:

A High Tension line is an incubator for firestorms because fire can not be fought while it is under the line. The fire can get out of control while it is under the line, and then break out and take the whole canyon. A Canyon Fire is notoriously hard to fight, and can easily turn into a firestorm. "Don't even think about putting a High Tension line in a canyon. The place to put it is on the ridge. That's the reason they are always put there."

Since the depression half the cabins in Angeles National Forest have burned down. Bouquet Canyon has lost only a few and these were due to local accidents. In an attempt to fight regional fires that start somewhere else, this change will greatly increase the chance of starting a regional fire here.

A Transmission Line creates a firefighter zapping zone where firefighters can not enter! When the fire breaks out of the zone, it may be raging. Since canyon firestorms are notoriously hard to put out: Maybe the firestorm will just stay here and burn down our homes, but it is much more likely that it will come over the hill and get yours also!

By Dick Knox at Save Bouquet Canyon

Please read the November 4, 2007 Los Angeles Times article by Joe Mozingo

Response from Bouquet Canyon Cabin Owner, Bill Boyce:

Joe,
I live in Bouquet Canyon, the site of the 39,000 acre Buckweed fire burn. My house escaped the flames by a mere 0.1. mile.. !!!  Several homes, including the Saugus District U.S. Forest Service Station were torched to the ground. At first, this fire was suspected to be caused by the high winds, downing the power lines, it was later proven to be started by a 10 year old kid with a match fetish.
 
We in Bouquet Canyon have currently been staunchly fighting a SCE / Angeles National Forest proposal to run 500 kV transmission lines across the town of Leona Valley, and right down the mid slope of Bouquet Canyon Recreational Area..!!!  There were other alternatives including partial, and total underground placement. But in the 24th hour of decision, in their dim witted wisdom, these agencies decided to shove these lines right in the face of thousands of annual Angeles Forest visitors who use the canyon for trout fishing ( a VERY RARE commodity in So. Cal. loved by the local Santa Clarita residents, by off road enthusiasts, by quail and deer hunters, by families on weekend picnics, by casual motorcycle groups and clubs that cherish the canyons rare scenic and rural habitat for their riding enjoyment, and by recreational residents in Bouquet Canyon . As a Humboldt State Graduate, whom spent 16 years of his life as a federal fisheries biologist, 4 of them with the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and California, I find their decision to be a politically motivated disaster that will ultimately impact this forest with permanent hindrance to fire suppressive tactics.
 
Their dangerous placement of these towers on the mid-slope also GREATLY hinders the ability of fire fighting personnel to combat ANY fire within a 600 foot swath under these lines due to the danger / risk to ground based fire suppressive efforts, AND will GREATLY hinder aerial attack of these fires due to the placement of these towers and their obvious danger posed to helicopters, and air tankers which get their water from the Bouquet Canyon Reservoir at the top of the canyon. Can you imagine these brave pilots having to worry about 220 foot high towers in a smoke filled canyon with high tension wires that criss cross the entire canyon several times to their ultimate destination. With dozens upon dozens of historic cabins in the canyon, with the historic Big Oaks Lodge ( built in 1913 ) located just 400 yards from one of the proposed towers, we in the canyon have many issues we have constantly brought to the attention of Jody Noiron, the Angeles National Forest Supervisor, Congressman Buck McKeon, Assemblyman Antonovich, SCE managers, via thousands of letters, emails, and FAXes explaining the publics displeasure of this potentially disastrous high tension wire tower placement. Our gallant, politically correct efforts have all been tossed to the wayside for reasons still left un-explained by ANY of these governing factions, and now their decision looks even more ridiculous after what we have all had to endure in Southern California the past few weeks.
 
The obvious answer to these future projects are underground placement. But without the voice of the public being heard thru a powerful and respected voice such as the L.A. Times, we have no chance to stand up to the machine of secretive government dealings, and decision making processes which put our lives, our homes, and our treasured natural surroundings in harms way. The last several years of the current federal administration has shown all Americans what is happening to our freedoms to be a part of the decision making process, we are continuously cut out from these important, often life threatening decisions and we need change NOW.

 

Perhaps it is time to expose this decision in the public eyes with the powerful media that is the L.A. Times. So that we can begin to take our country back,, and make things right for the people whose taxes pay for the wages and services of these decision making people. While at the same time, demanding to be taken into FULL ACCOUNT as the ultimate reason for decisions to be made when issues of our safety and well being are at the fore front of their dealings.

 

Thank you for your time and efforts in your article and if you need ANY further info on the issue I have brought to your attention here.. Please do not hesitate to ask...   
 
Bill Boyce
34707 Bouquet Cyn. Rd.
Saugus, CA 91390

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