Telperion Farm on fire

Sadness: Heartbreaking to lose your business and home.

Optimism: I’m happy they are safe and with luck the gofundme and the insurance can help rebuild what was lost. Also sign me up for a fire damaged bonsai!!

(On a side note, super disgusted in the derailment of this thread in the middle. Gross)
 
I have seven Telperion trees and was planning on going out there again this year. Chris and Lisa were huge contributors to the bonsai community in Oregon, and to my mind one of the best growers out there in America especially considering most of their trees aren't that old, just 10-12 years or so in the field. They were very generous with time and information, always giving me valuable tips. I have another friend who lives nearby, his house hasn't burned yet although it's still a worry.

I'm not sure if everyone here knows Gary Wood, but he's Chris's partner with the horticultural side of bonsai growing. Sorry Gary, I haven't met you, just heard about you.

What has happened as far as I know is that unexpected high winds have blown cinders from other fires all over the state, so wildfires are out of control. I live in a suburb of Portland, and even here high winds blew a couple of my fences down, dropped lots of tree limbs, and knocked about 1/3 of my trees over. People in southern Oregon in and around Phoenix have lost their houses, also the small communities east of Salem and Eugene. It's crazy out there, the sky is orange and full of smoke.

www.koin.com

Fires and evacuations: Here’s what you need to know

An estimated 500,000 Oregon residents are in evacuation zones as wildfires fanned by strong winds consume huge swaths of Oregon in what governor Kate Brown said Wednesday could turn out be the grea…
www.koin.com www.koin.com

Oregon Department of Forestry : Information & statistics : Fire : State of Oregon

During fire season, the fire situation map will show active large fires ODF is tracking in the state and the locations of year-to-date lightning and human-caused fires (statistical fires where ODF is the primary protection agency).
www.oregon.gov www.oregon.gov
 
Carol 83 said:
This thread is about someone in the bonsai community losing their home and business, not your petty political shit.
Click to expand...

[EDIT] I'm going to start editing out the politics from this thread. If you want to argue about it, feel free to take it offline via PM. -BNut [/EDIT]
 
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It’s ok to have a strong political opinion but this is not the thread for sharing those.
No one is saying don’t feel that way. Just don’t talk about it on this thread please.
 
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Absolutely horrific and heartbreaking what is happening. My heart goes out to the Kirks and thousands of others being affected. Telperion was a pillar in the American bonsai community.

I have been communicating with Andrew Robson. He told me he was going to try and help salvage whatever they could at Telperion. On his first trip he was stopped by the police just minutes before arriving and had to turn back. Thursday he was making a second try.

He just posted on Instagram about an hour ago and said that they were able to save whatever trees that survived the fire. The photos he posted are truly heartbreaking.
 
[EDIT] Final warning. Take it elsewhere. [/EDIT]
 
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Would you just STOP already? STOP! This is not the place for this.
 
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So tragic... hate seeing anyone deal with fire. Thinking back of Owen not long ago. To many hits to our community.

Prayers for all effected.. and praying for rains to come. And for protection in the wake of these fires.
 
The picture of that Chimney makes me wanna build a woodfire kiln right there!

Rather than donate to BonsaiNut this week, a percentage of auction proceeds is going to help Our 3 fire go fund mes.

Sorce
 
I'm really sorry to hear about this tragedy, I've followed every post on here and various other social media and bonsai specific blogs about Telperion for years. My plan for when I retire was to maybe do a mini version of Telperion / Comstock / Brent to keep me busy so I'm absolutely gutted for them and the trees that they may have lost. My prayers go out to them. 🙏🙏
 
Bonsai Nut said:
On a positive note... giant sequoias need fire in order to reproduce... 3' thick bark comes in handy!
Click to expand...

Yes, but they need rain too. And that's what's missing at the moment. The population of giant sequoia is dwindling because of more frequent droughts.

We were all appaled by the videos of LA shrouded in an orange kind of smog. Eerie, scary. A friend of mine just wrote : "My daughter reported an air quality of 350 in the Bay Area. That's "stay inside and breath with a mask" time... "

Here, we broke all-time-records in temperatures for mid-september : it was 35°C (95F) when it's around 21°C (70F) it's a warm September.

As the local saying goes "comparison is not reason". But denying (man-made) climate change is... Definitely not the way to help people who have lived in these areas for decades and can see that's something's wrong.
 
AlainK said:
Yes, but they need rain too. And that's what's missing at the moment. The population of giant sequoia is dwindling because of more frequent droughts.

We were all appaled by the videos of LA shrouded in an orange kind of smog. Eerie, scary. A friend of mine just wrote : "My daughter reported an air quality of 350 in the Bay Area. That's "stay inside and breath with a mask" time... "

Here, we broke all-time-records in temperatures for mid-september : it was 35°C (95F) when it's around 21°C (70F) it's a warm September.

As the local saying goes "comparison is not reason". But denying (man-made) climate change is... Definitely not the way to help people who have lived in these areas for decades and can see that's something's wrong.
Click to expand...
Alain, the Giant Sequoias are 3000 years old. A five or 10 year drought is nothing to them. They need fire to open up their pine cones to release the seeds. They’re declining, not because of droughts, but because of past logging, and our attempts of forestry management preventing small forest fires. By preventing small forest fires, we’ve allowed the leaf litter on the forest floor to accumulate to the point that now, when forest fires occur, they’re bigger, hotter, and longer lasting than they would have been. In the past, when the forests were “unmanaged”, the Giant Sequoia groves could expect a forest fire to occur about every 30 years. They have fire resistant bark, and could easily survive these. And the cones of 30 years of production would open. New seedlings would start about every 30 years. Now, with no forest fires in the past 150 years or so, there are no seedlings. Only the old trees are there. This, I saw with my own eyes. I was there in January. I saw no “young” Giant Sequoias less than 100 years old.

The forest service now recognizes the problem, and now they have plans in place to “allow” forest fires in the GS groves.
 
Adair M said:
They need fire to open up their pine cones to release the seeds. They’re declining, not because of droughts, but because of past logging, and our attempts of forestry management preventing small forest fires.
Click to expand...

That's partly true.

Several years of drought will definitely weaken the trees.

That's whatr we call "sénescence précoce" in French, prob. something like "early senescence". That's what's happening to a lot of conifers in Europe, esp. in the Jura, smaller mountains near the Alps. The forest can survive a first year of drought, the weaker trees will die, but not so many. In the second year of drought, more, older trees will die, etc.

Sorry, this is in French, but maybe an online translation tool can help :

..

Global warming is by definition global. It can create droughts, or floods depending on the area, or both in a row, which is the worst because heavy rain after drought washes out the soil after a drought.

But maybe it will start to cool down this winter : if more of the ice-cap melts, or if thousands of tons of glaciers detach themselves from greenland, the sea level will rise. At least the people in Florida can keep cool feet...
 
AlainK said:
That's partly true.

Several years of drought will definitely weaken the trees.

That's whatr we call "sénescence précoce" in French, prob. something like "early senescence". That's what's happening to a lot of conifers in Europe, esp. in the Jura, smaller mountains near the Alps. The forest can survive a first year of drought, the weaker trees will die, but not so many. In the second year of drought, more, older trees will die, etc.

Sorry, this is in French, but maybe an online translation tool can help :

..

Global warming is by definition global. It can create droughts, or floods depending on the area, or both in a row, which is the worst because heavy rain after drought washes out the soil after a drought.

But maybe it will start to cool down this winter : if more of the ice-cap melts, or if thousands of tons of glaciers detach themselves from greenland, the sea level will rise. At least the people in Florida can keep cool feet...
Click to expand...
Alain, I’m not denying Global Warming. But, a year or two of drought for a 3000 year old tree is inconsequential.

Now...

This thread is about Telperion Farms. If you want to talk about Global Warming, start another thread.
 
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