Recovery Road
Jasmine Borgatti and the Rebuilding of Happy Camp…
On September 8, 2020, the Slater Fire ignited, quickly becoming a wind-driven inferno that ravaged the town of Happy Camp. The fire claimed two lives and destroyed 440 structures, including 212 homes – profoundly devastating statistics for a population of less than 1,000. “When you take away almost 50 percent of the housing in a very secluded area, that’s a pretty drastic hit,” says Jasmine Borgatti, who was born and raised in Happy Camp and is now the Chief Resilience Officer for Happy Camp Community Action, Inc, a nonprofit that operates the Slater Fire Long Term Recovery Group (LTRG).
Borgatti also notes a silver lining. “As catastrophic as the Slater Fire was and is, it really did bring the community together, and politics and individual agendas got set aside. Unfortunately, sometimes I think it takes a big event like the Slater Fire to remind people of what their underlying values are. So, here we are, four years later, still together, figuring out the path forward. How do we help people rebuild? How do we keep people here? How do we revive our town?”
Some of the solutions the Slater Fire Long Term Recovery Group is exploring involve biomass technologies. “Originally, the biomass conversation focused around more traditional types of biomasses, such as either creating some kind of energy or producing a product like pellets. An older feasibility study concluded that it was too costly to ship anything out of Happy Camp, so if you produce a product like pellets, it’s challenging to get a positive return on investment or break even in the market. So, like most, we went into a new feasibility study thinking maybe we could produce energy and sell it back to the grid to avoid shipping costs. We hired The Beck Group, a consulting company out of Portland, and they produced a list of feasible technologies that could be viable in Happy Camp,” explains Borgatti.
Two ideas from the proposed list have since floated to the top. “One was a specialty small-scale sawmill that’s designed to produce products that aren’t readily available in the local market area, like smaller-dimensional 1x material or large custom beams. The smaller-dimensional lumber could fill a need in a market known as Mass Timber, an upcoming technology focused on bringing down the carbon footprint of commercial buildings by using wood products instead of cement in design elements. Most traditional mills don’t have the equipment to produce these smaller products, and they’re hesitant to make the large capital investments to change the facilities that they already have.” Given Happy Camp’s history as a mill town, Borgatti says this has been a popular idea. “When you chat with people about bringing back a specialty saw mill, many of them, especially the old timers, get this kind of sparkle in their eyes.”
The second idea that’s also captured community attention is Wood Wool Cement, another new and upcoming technology. “A facility would take little, almost shredded, pieces of wood and mix it with concrete to create larger wall elements to build single family homes,” Borgatti says. “Although emerging in the United States, it’s been used in Europe for an extensive amount of time, and it has a very high fire resistance and insulative rating. It could potentially also utilize the smaller kind of slashy-type material that comes off the forest floor, not just the large diameter trees. So, the idea would be to get in on the ground floor and set up a researched-based pilot program with partners such as Cal Poly Humboldt to figure out the perfect recipe and pave the way to get Wood Wool Cement into the mainstream U.S. market.”
Borgatti admits that while long-term recovery can, at times, feel as though it’s moving slowly, it’s part of the process. “It takes a lot of people showing up to the meetings over and over and over again for years. But the dedication is astounding. And, as we move forward with putting these projects in place, we’re doing it with different partners in our corner. These partners include the Klamath National Forest, Karuk Tribe, Mid-Klamath Watershed Council, Happy Camp Fire District, Happy Camp Volunteer Ambulance, Hope for Happy Camp, as well as many others. Collaborative forest management is key to our success and essential for hazard mitigation and long-term resilience, and stewardship agreements will help fill our need for products from the landscape while helping to meet overall management goals. So, it’s a win-win across the board.”
It’s also proof of the resiliency and resourcefulness of the Happy Camp community. “It’s not a huge community, so we all wear a lot of hats, but that’s what it takes. We’re all here for the long haul, and for the love of our community we’ll make it happen. That’s Happy Camp Strong.”•
RISE Collaborative
www.happycampstrong.org
