Avocado ranchers start replanting as they recover from Thomas fire losses

Avocado ranchers are assessing their properties and replanting after devastating losses in the Thomas Fire last December.

In Ventura County, where the brunt of the fire torched thousands of acres, over 6600 acres of avocado trees were impacted, according to agricultural officials.

Mac Brown is an avocado rancher off of Highway 150 a few miles past Carpinteria and over the Santa Barbara County line. He also owns a well established excavating company. ( http://www.macbrown.com/ ) His family and crews were using heavy equipment to cut fuel breaks as the Thomas fire turned towards his 120 acres site. It wasn’t enough to hold back the violent impact of the fire storm that came through, taking out hundreds of trees.

He and other growers from Santa Paula to Montecito sustained losses estimated to be over 4000 tons and a dollar loss of over $10-million.

Brown cut back some of the damaged trees to stumps and others were cut down. He wants his hillsides to come back with a uniform look.

New trees are going in but his prepaid purchase of 300 trees was far below what his need was going to be to replace the losses. Other ranchers with an order in that had an excess made sure Brown could get a larger allotment.

“Some of the neighbors that didn’t burn had a certain amount that were available,” said Brown.

By the end of 2019 he is expected to have about 1300 trees on the hillsides.

Despite the impacts from the fire and the loss of his crop, the ranch work to recover has kept his workers busy instead of on the sidelines.

“Actually .we’ve been adding employees and adding jobs obviously just the work cutting down the trees and revamping the place,” he said.

Finding an optimistic outlook has been a balance between understanding the impact of the fire and looking at the potential to recover. “If it had burned 100 percent of the place it would have been devastating but we do have enough to help pay he bills so it is not a total loss,” said Brown as he looked over a mix of new plantings and well established avocado trees.

Until the fire in December, the financial outlook was strong with many trees producing top quality avocados. ” I was hoping that this would be the year, but obviously it isn’t , but we will just keep going,” he said.

Brown’s home is on the ranch and flames from the fire came through the canyons on multiple sides. His crew, family and engines from a fire company assigned to the site defended the structure along with his shop and equipment. At times, the fire was doused as it climbed the hill directly below the house. “They had two engines parked right here and they had six hoses, ” he said while pointing around the driveway.

Growers in other hard hit areas of Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Montecito and Carpinteria are also recovering. Besides the trees, many have to put in new irrigation systems or ranch support buildings to replace the ones lost in the fire.

The area is rich in avocados, along with oranges, lemons and tangerines.