Watershed is a box of matches – Opinion
By Ron Ringen:
Ron W. Ringen is a member of the board of the Tuolumne Utilities District.
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the people found out how low they were on the FEMA recovery food chain. I’m not trying to be flip or smart here but we, Tuolumne County, are just one dry lightning strike/wildfire away from the same rude awakening.
The South Fork of the Stanislaus River has not burned in more than 100 years and that’s where many of our homes are located as well as the flume that brings water to most of the residents in Tuolumne County.
A fire in that canyon would be disastrous.
This is a fact: fire, like other disasters, becomes political. No millionaires or movie stars live here like in Hollywood. We are a rural community and in the case of the Donnell Fire, we lost tracts of irreplaceable cabins and history that we love.
