MENDOCINO – (INT) - The Ranch and River fires, together called the Mendocino Complex by Cal Fire, combined to become the largest wildfire in recorded state history.

“I’ve seen burned-up orchards and I’ve seen singed orchards,” he said. “I’ve seen singed grapes and burned-up grapes, same with pears,” Lake County Agricultural Commissioner Steven Hajik said.

The largest Lake County impact by far is to rangeland, Hajik said, with 45,000 acres affected. He also estimated 2,000 acres of timber production were damaged, “but that’s probably on the low side.”

Elsewhere in California, two federal Cabinet secretaries—Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke—visited Shasta County, where the Carr Fire had damaged more than 200,000 acres.

In Orange and Riverside counties, the Holy Fire, which started Aug. 6, had caused no reported damage to agriculture, according to the Orange County Farm Bureau and the Orange County agricultural commissioner’s office.

“We’ve lost a lot of feed, and so there might be a need of trying to coordinate some sort of effort on helping with hay,” Devon Jones, executive director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau said, noting that livestock operations had taken the brunt of the fire damage but others had also been affected.

Meantime, more than 500 farmers, laborers, students, and concerned citizens rallied at the State Capitol Monday, opposing a state plan that could disrupt the water supply of more than three million northern Californians. Besides threatening drinking water supplies, the plan would jeopardize the state’s multi-billion-dollar farming industry, while providing little proof of environmental benefit.

The massive “Stop the State Water Grab” rally came the day before the State Water Resources Control Board considers a plan to sharply curtail water flows to nearly 3 million people from the North San Joaquin Valley to the Bay Area.

Story Date: September 1, 2018