Qualla: The Forest That Keeps Starting Over https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/u/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Forest That Keeps Starting Over https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest The Forest That Keeps Starting Over: Introduction https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest/ Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. In December 1949, the California Division of Forestry paid $38,000 for 3,432 acres of mountain land that nobody else wanted. The price was low because there was almost nothing left to buy. The Setzer Forest Products Company had clear-cut the slopes of Boggs Mountain down to stumps, and the Calso Company was happy to unload the acreage for $20,600 - roughly six dollars an acre for volcanic soil and scrub. The state's plan was unusual for the era: rather than exploit whatever timber remained, they would demonstrate that a ruined forest could be brought back. For sixty-five years, that experiment worked. Then the Valley Fire arrived.

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/u/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest-wp/9qbu-the-forest-that-keeps-starting-over-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Forest That Keeps Starting Over: Volcanic Bones, Living Skin https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest/ Photo credit Marcia Wright, Public domain. Boggs Mountain sits at the southeastern end of the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, a rolling highland that levels out around 3,000 feet above sea level. Long spurs run southeast toward Putah Creek, and the upper slopes flatten into a plateau cut by drainage channels. Volcanic rock bre...

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Image: Marcia Wright | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/u/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest-wp/9qbu-the-forest-that-keeps-starting-over-volcanic-bones-living-skin.mp3 0:06 2 full The Forest That Keeps Starting Over: Sixty-Five Years of Patient Work https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest/ Photo credit Marcia Wright, Public domain. The early years were slow. The state mapped and inventoried what little remained but harvested nothing. Cliff Fago became the forest's first permanent manager in 1965 and completed a full inventory. Between 1966 and 1976, the last remnants of old-growth timber were selectively re...

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Image: Marcia Wright | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/u/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest-wp/9qbu-the-forest-that-keeps-starting-over-sixty-five-years-of-patient-work.mp3 0:06 3 full The Forest That Keeps Starting Over: October 2015 https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest/ Photo credit Marcia Wright, Public domain. The Valley Fire ignited on September 12, 2015, near the community of Cobb and burned through 76,067 acres before it was contained. When it reached Boggs Mountain, the results were catastrophic. Eighty percent of the mature trees on the mountain were killed. Ninety-five percent of...

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Image: Marcia Wright | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/u/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest-wp/9qbu-the-forest-that-keeps-starting-over-october-2015.mp3 0:06 4 full The Forest That Keeps Starting Over: Seven Hundred Thousand Seedlings https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest/ Photo credit Marcia Wright, Public domain. By March 2017, crews had planted approximately 312,000 eight-inch seedlings of Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, and sugar pine across the burned slopes, spacing them at thirteen-foot intervals. That was roughly one third of the planned reforestation. It would take a decade before tho...

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Image: Marcia Wright | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/u/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest-wp/9qbu-the-forest-that-keeps-starting-over-seven-hundred-thousand-seedlings.mp3 0:06 5 full The Forest That Keeps Starting Over: The Demonstration Continues https://qualla.com/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest/ Photo credit Marcia Wright, Public domain. The word 'demonstration' in the forest's name was never decorative. Boggs Mountain was purchased to prove a point: that a devastated forest could be restored through scientific management. Between 1952 and 2005, researchers measured ten permanent plots at five-year intervals, map...

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Image: Marcia Wright | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/u/boggs-mountain-demonstration-state-forest-wp/9qbu-the-forest-that-keeps-starting-over-the-demonstration-continues.mp3 0:06 6 full