Resiliency and Community: A Story of Determination as the August Complex Swept Over a Cannabis Farm - Redheaded Blackbelt

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The August Complex burned up to the fence on Jennifer Procacci and Joey Gothelf’s cannabis garden near Covelo. [Photo from @wildlandcannabis]

As much as wildfires destroy so much in their path, the people facing the fire often show strength and find a sense of community in the face of adversity that makes them both stronger as individuals and as neighbors.

37-year-old Jennifer Procacci, a cannabis cultivator who lives northeast of Covelo by the Black Butte Campground, and co-owns Wildland Cannabis, said she came through the experience feeling much more connected to her neighbors and feeling personally resilient.

“We were aware of the fire encroaching upon us for several weeks,” she told us. “We began preparing. We weedwhacked down to the dirt. We took all our propane containers and put them out in the field…This was all two weeks before the fire made it to us.”

Eventually, the area was put under an evacuation warning. Then on September 7, under hot and dry conditions, the August Complex began to push up the ridge behind Procacci and her business partner’s property.

Procacci said she hadn’t really been worried, but then this day she was listening to the Forest Service do an online update. “The person had this soothing voice,” she said. But then she realized that he was saying that the fire was going to come through her area. “The fire was on the ridge behind my property and firefighters were going to ‘lead” the fire down my ridge,” She realized, “I knew I should probably get my stuff together and get out of there.”

A friend offered to come help her evacuate. But soon after he hung up, he called back. The Oak Fire north of Willits had exploded near him and he was forced to evacuate. Eventually, in spite of his own concerns, he still showed up and began helping her gather her belongings

“We packed up my whole house,” she said. “We got the Mandatory Evacuation [Order]. We took up all my stuff and left.”

“Then the next day the sky was black and red,” she explained. “We’d never seen anything like this before.” She said even the firefighters she talked to seemed unsettled by the strange wine red skies.

Procacci was glad she left. “I wasn’t interested in putting myself in a life threatening situation,” she told us. But she kept in touch with those who stayed.

“We had a neighbor that stayed behind and did not evacuate,” she explained. “He gave us text updates…He went and cut a line around our outhouse…My neighbor saved his house and his neighbor’s house ”

Mexico Ridge continued burning above the geodesic dome situated on Wildland Cannabis’s property even after Jenn Procacci hiked back in. [Photo provided by Jenn Procacci]

Eventually, the fire calmed down around her property. And even though the area was under an Evacuation Order, Procacci’s neighbor told her that she could probably come back. She was worried about their plants. Because the smoke was so thick, there was no solar to draw water. “Our well wasn’t pumping,” she explained. “[The plants] hadn’t been watered in about a week.”

Because of the Evacuation Order, Procacci wouldn’t be able to drive past the checkpoints so she decided to hike back in while carrying her Honda 2200 generator so that she could pump water to take care of her plants. “I knew that if I didn’t have any power I couldn’t run my water,” she explained.

Joey Gothelf, Procacci’s business partner in Wildland Cannabis said that Procacci was incredibly determined. “She hiked in like a champ, like a badass,” he said in amazement.

Procacci tried to downplay the experience of carrying a backpack with supplies and hauling a generator in her hands overland to her property. “The Honda 2200 weighs about 50 pounds,” she explained. “I only had to carry it like a mile. Once I was inside the evac zone, I had a neighbor [already inside the zone] come and get me.”

She admitted, “It was really awkward…I was carrying the generator by the handles and I did have to climb up this really steep hillside.”

Once there she was able to see that the fire had stopped at their garden’s boundary. “It melted our deer fencing,” she said. “But, I have friends who lost everything.”

She said she was delighted at how kind the firefighting crews were. “The day I got up to my land, there were a lot of Forestry Service and BLM…They were so complimentary about the plants…They definitely were working to protect people’s gardens…They were from all over–from Montana, Minnesota, from New Mexico and even one from Mexico.”

When she got back, she and her neighbors began working to help not only each other but those who were outside the evacuation zone and unable to check on their properties. “Once I was back on my land, it felt like I was on another planet. The world got very small. It was just me and my neighbors trying to take care of problems. I got to make amazing community connections. We all felt really resilient. It is just what the cannabis community has always felt like–working together.”

Before the fire, she hadn’t known all who lived nearby, but the fire changed that. “One of my neighbors I hadn’t even met…and now we’ve become really close,” she explained. “He invited me up for dinner for the first five nights I was back…Either I would go or someone would bring it to me.” She added in awe, “Someone bringing you a hot meal at the end of the day is the most amazing thing.”

She noted that this neighbor wasn’t the only one she built ties with. “I’ve just become really close to the three neighbors that are nearest,” she told us. “We were all trying to take care of each other’s gardens. There were a lot of people texting and calling us, asking us to water.”

She expects the camaraderie to last and make their neighborhood better. “It was a real opportunity to build community…We’ve talked about doing land projects together [in the future].”

Gothelf, Procacci’s business partner, agreed that the fire bound the residents of the area together.  Living in a rural area, he explained, “We’re often times left to fend for ourselves. You are not going to sit around and wait for people to help you.” He noted that because there were so many fires across California and resources were stretched so thin that there was “an absence of firefighters” in their area. “We’re up here alone,” he said. “Houses spread out. It is good to know we have tough, resilient neighbors…That’s just the spirit of Covelo.”

Spots of fire still continued to burn after Jenn Procacci and later Joey Gothelf returned to their land. [Photo provided by Jenn Procacci]

Gothelf, who says he has been back to the property almost everyday since the Evacuation Order was downgraded, described the experience and the landscape as surreal. “The ground is black everywhere you look,” he told us. “There are still smoking trees. There are still spot fires. It is crazy how much time can elapse, then the wind will pick up and a spot fire will pop up.”

The understory of the forest is swept almost clean he said. “The forest floor is pretty bare except all these little lines of white ash where every piece of wood was,” he explained. “The meadows–just black.” But he said, there is some sign of animal life. “I can see all these burrows that have been re-dug..little dots of brown where all these burrows popped back up.”

The two partners are somewhat concerned about the effect of smoke and ash on their cannabis harvest. But both are very hopeful the flowers are unaffected. “I am on the edge of the national forest,” Procacci explained. “Everything that was burning around me was pasture and meadows and trees.” She feels that if there had been homes or vehicles that had burned that might have effected the final product.

Gothelf agrees. “I don’t necessarily think [the smoke and ash are] going to be an issue,” he said. He said they are shaking or blowing the ash off and eventually washing the buds. “As soon as I have a dry bud, I’m going to get it in for…testing,” he said explaining that is a normal part of the harvest process anyway and he believes the tests will show the flowers won’t have been damaged.

“Cannabis is a survivor and is a tough plant,” he said and unspoken was the comparison with the rural people who grow it.

But beyond the resiliency of the individuals who grow the plant, Jennifer Procacci says it was working together with her neighbors that not only helped her farm survive but built strong bonds that she thinks will last long after new green grass grows in her black meadows. She told us, “It was the power of community that helped me through this experience.”

A moth and soot smudged fingers. [Photo provided by Jenn Procacci]

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