Prompted by the “whoop” of a siren, the tandem-rotor helicopter lifted off from a debris basin in west Altadena on Wednesday, Aug. 27, flying to Millard Canyon, where it scooped up fire debris from eight private cabins, restrooms and a camp host site burned in the Eaton fire and returned to the basin to dump its loads.
The first-ever aerial debris clean-out since the devastating fire of Jan. 7 began on Saturday, Aug. 23 and will continue at least through Sept. 2, sources said.
The helicopter-aided operation has rattled nearby residents’ and alarmed environmental groups who fear the helicopter rotors will sweep birds from their nests and the aggressive cleanup inside an oak woodlands canyon will uproot too many mature trees.
“We feel like a lot of the damage is unnecessary,” said Rebecca Latta, a consulting arborist with the group Altadena Green, who has heard reports of tree limbs broken from repeated helicopter approaches in the canyon and has seen photos of trees knocked into the creek bed.
The large, red-and-white, twin-rotor helicopter has been making round-trips from a debris basin adjacent to newly opened Loma Alta Park to Millard Canyon, a popular hiking area that’s home to several cabin owners. The staging area is directly adjacent to the La Viña housing tract, a gated Altadena community.
“Yeah, I hear them both in the morning and at night,” said Shan Liu, a La Viña homeowner as she was waiting for the entrance gate to swing open. “I can’t open the sliding glass doors (of my house) because it is too loud outside.”
The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting the unusual aerial clearing at the behest of the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the federal Angeles National Forest land where the cabins burned. The Army Corps has cleared more than 5,600 properties in the Eaton fire area, the last one completed Aug. 14, with operations conducted at a record pace.
What remains are a handful of special inclusion projects, such as the debris clearing in Millard Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains just north of the community of Altadena. Here’s what is known about the unusual aerial operation, according to the Army Corps:
• Eight cabins burned and qualify for debris removal under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s fire debris program. Of those, three cabins are being cleared by trucks and excavation equipment entering the narrow dirt road into the canyon and “will undergo standard debris removal.” Five cabins are tucked away, with only a foot path and are in narrow, steep terrain and therefore require helicopter support “to lift debris out for transfer.”
• Helicopters by rope and hook transport the following equipment into the canyon: CAT mini excavators; skip bins used for transporting waste; helicopter lifting bags for bulky materials, and other miscellaneous items. Several excavators were seen on Aug. 23 parked at the staging site but were gone by Aug. 27.
• “Equipment and fire debris was flown in and out of the cabin area and transferred to trucks” at the LA County Department of Public Works’ Lincoln SPS site near West Loma Alta Drive and Sunset Ridge Road — the primary staging area.
• The public, including the media, were prohibited from entering Millard Canyon and not allowed on site at the LA County staging area during helicopter operations. Media could only view the operation hundreds of yards from the staging area, or near the trailhead across from Loma Alta Park, 3330 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena.
Latta is concerned more trees — oaks and alders — will be taken than planned. She and others with the Chaney Trail Corridor Project earlier in the year convinced the Army Corps to reduce the number of trees tagged for removal from about 80 to 12.
While she agrees that helicopter drop operations avoid bulldozing more area for roadways, she’s hearing reports from cabin owners and others that a big excavator is being used, which can cause damage to the sensitive canyon and affect wild animals and new plant life making a comeback.
Trees knocked into the creek can harm the salamanders and tiny fish, she said. Larger mammals are fleeing the area when they hear the noise and feel the winds from the rotors. “Could this have been done more sensitively? Yes,” she said.
Millard Canyon is rich in wildlife but also worthy of a top spot in the history of Pasadena and Altadena. The trails from the Chaney Trail Road entrance lead to a waterfall, which makes it extremely popular for hikers, joggers and just walkers who want a fairly easy route to nature and a jolt of cardio. The fire and excavation will keep the trails closed for several years.
The trail was built as a toll road to Millard Canyon Falls by the Giddings family who settled there from Iowa in the late 1880s. Since then, many Dena residents took it for outings, such as picnics and nature excursions, said Paul Ayers, an attorney/historian on nature and trails in the region who has made numerous presentations on the topics.
“Millard became a destination for people, especially because of the beautiful waterfall,” he said. “There are photographs since the 1880s of people at those falls.”
Latta said her group and others only heard about the operation second-hand. “We don’t know what shape they are going to leave it (Millard Canyon) in because they are not talking with us,” she said.
Altadena Town Council member Dorothy Wong, whose home burned down in the fire, said the Town Council heard a brief announcement from an Army Corps official at a Town Council meeting many weeks ago. Few details were offered, she added.
“This one, Millard Canyon, is our richest canyon in Altadena and it is really important. I don’t think there was a strong enough representative voice,” she said.
This past week, Wong began getting phone calls from constituents.
“Residents are going, ‘What is happening?’ A resident sent a video of the helicopters asking what’s going on,” she said.
Many were concerned about the helicopters unloading enclosed bags at the debris site. They were concerned these contained hazardous debris, but that could not be confirmed. On Aug. 27, helicopters were seen emptying skip bins of soil and tree branches. The Army Corps did not say why bags were being used at first, and did not respond when asked to elaborate on the operation, other agencies involved and the cost of the helicopter debris removal operation.
John Howell, whose cabin of more than 12 years burned down in the Eaton fire, said he was briefed by an Army Corps official while at his cabin site several weeks before debris-removal operations started. His cabin needed helicopters to remove the debris, he said.
“I did not see the helicopters but I heard when they would come in, the workers would fill up the bags with soils,” said Howell, executive director of the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy, which owns land for protection in the canyon and also in other nearby canyons.
He said the officials asked if there was anything he wanted to salvage and he said no.
“The most enjoyable part of owning the cabin was sleeping with the bedroom window open at night. The nighttime was magic,” he remembered.
He does not want to rebuild the cabin. The land is rented from the U.S. Forest Service. He will ask the USFS to terminate the holding and decommission the site, so no one can ever build on that site again, he said.
“Now that it is gone, I would like to leave it to nature,” he said.