Pretty smokey here, hope all you guys in b.c. are ok
Yair . . . Bloody hell! I always associate that part of your country with lots of rain. Cheers
I've been smoking 5 packs of Ponderosa Pine and 7 packs of Douglas Fir a day here in Montana. I've got 18 square miles of burn to my North, South and West and a third of my land burned.
Sorry about the duplicates, clicking "full image" doesn't work right for me.
WOW!! Sorry to see that and to hear about your land, be safe!
Grandma better not fire up her wood stove unless she stood in line and filled out the forms in triplicate on the "previously approved ‘No Other Adequate Source of Heat’ exemption" Billy Bob better not grill any steaks http://www.pscleanair.org/news/Documents/08-02-17_Stage1BurnBan_ All4Counties.pdf http://www.pscleanair.org/news/Documents/08-02-17_Stage1BurnBan_ All4Counties.pdf You know if they did then that would push it over the edge and the entire city would be wiped out. Good thing you guys have the socio-economic equity and environmental justice clean air people thinking this stuff up to keep everybody safe.
Drove through the fort lewis military reservation yesterday and they were still doing controlled burns.. lots of smoke going up!
Check, that's not good, sorry to hear. Fires are raging all around here, no end in sight. It's going to get worse before it gets better as August is always the busiest month for wildfires, there are still no-mind city slickers passing through causing new fires, throwing cigarette butts out, lighting camp fires even though they're banned... Some people should have never been born. I know some folks think that all BC forest is like the coastal forest but it's completely different animal up here, tinder dry, pitch oozing beetle kill pine and spruce, floor stacked with fuel, smaller wood, lower canopy. Fires crown like it's nothing. If forestry got off their a$$es over the last decade they could have reduced the fuel sources, now that the **** hit the fan they are all running around making their presence known "doing their job" So far 2017 is the 2nd worst fire season in BC, surpassed only by the 1958 season. On a good note we are getting a break from the smoke with this wind change.
Funny Birken, my thoughts are we should send all the California transplants back where they came from. The people born here don't seem to have much problem with the heat or the smoke.
I know what you mean about some people (insert opinion) wherever they are from. I grew up in far N.California in the 50's and 60's and my Dad was a logger. Almost all fires were lightning caused, rarely was there a man caused fire in the woods.
With so many places limited to no logging the forest fires will only get worse. The trees a a renewable resource, harvest replant and they grow to be harvested, again. Not only that but the roads that the logging build help get to a fire and possibly contain a fire. Darn tree hugging people are doing more damage than good, it seems to me.
They have been taking out the roads in this state for years now. The feds and state have some kind of tax benefit for removing them and putting the slopes back to original.
They do that here too. Then when there is a fire they will have Cats out there putting the road back in. Then when the fire is over they go back and take them out again.
This 20 square mile burn that surrounds me started as lightning in the high country. All but one of the roads in that area had been either neglected or obliterated. The first 3 days the firefighters worked on the fire, they were trying to gain access by re-commissioning those roads. Progress was slow and then the winds kicked up and negated all their progress. Now the fire is huge and they're spending several million a day trying to control it with helicopters and jets. Just a half million in dozer and grader work could have been the ounce of prevention that avoided this ton of cure. Road maintenance sure is cheap compared to air support. I have no complaints with the USFS and contract firefighters, but the upper management has got to go.
If the forestry departments were allowed to do there job and keep the politics out of it there would have been controlled burns all along. Almost makes you think that mother nature knew what she was doing before man decided they can save everything. Nationwide they closed many roads and trails because the greenies did not want them.
If the forestry departments were allowed to do their job and keep the politics out of it there would have been logging all along.
Proof you can't have it both ways, if you're going to leave it all "natural" and not harvest it, thin it, clean up bug kill or fire salvage, then you have to stand back and let it burn, because that's nature trying to sterilize the ground and start fresh. Use it or let it burn, one or the other.
Nature isn't an entity who has a will of her own. It just is what it is. Nature is NOT always her own best friend, the Fire of 1910 is testament to that. Nature didn't "want" the rivers to flow muddy for years afterwards. Trees grow too close together, robbing each other of moisture and making the entire forest susceptible to Pine Beetles and fire. Trees do not have a higher IQ than people. The religion of modern environmental organizations is based on nonsense.
Motivation is irrelevant. You're thinking on too short a time scale in any case. No nature is not intelligent, but given enough time and lack of intervention, everything gets renewed, no matter how messy the process. Don't get the idea I'm in favor of the let it rot, let it burn idiots, I'm just stating that the current lack of common sense management ain't working. Especially when you replant with a single species that is not particularly resistant to either bugs or fire, and then refuse to allow harvest or needed surgical intervention.
It is the same story everywhere. I live in SW Idaho now and a year ago they had a huge burn, mostly in brush and grass. The argument here was from the ranchers who have long grazed cattle on BLM (Federal) lands for a fee. The environmentalists have argued for a reduction in the grazing and the ranchers counter with the fact that it help keep down the fuel load. Neither side is entirely right, but the same issues discussed in previous posts applies in this area and further north in Idaho where there is timber and logging. The BLM and Forest Service here argues that closing the abandoned logging roads limits access to the public that is too often careless with fire. The other side of the argument is that when there is a fire, access is now a problem. I talked to my brother yesterday who lives in N. California. The joke there is that when a fire starts the Forest Service will soon manage it from a small fire to a big one and justify more equipment and budget. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that there were huge fires in the past and a lot depends on weather conditions and location when a fire occurs. Some are easily contained and some just blow up and you can't do much but get out of the way.
I think we give ourselves too much credit for the impact we have on the planet. This planet was around for billions of years before us and it will be around long after us (unless we crash into the sun or something). The planet is more than capable of looking after itself. Its probably getting tired of all these stupid people breeding and is trying to thin us out a bit lol.
Just a shame that concrete jungles aren't as flammable as our forests.. I'm hoping all this fire activity will slow down the spread of cancer like population making its way up here from the Vancouver area... As a side note, If they would remove all the safety labels, gaurds and signs to protect the stupid, our over population problem would solve itself! Just my redneck 2cents! Hah!
How true we have the same problem here just a few hrs. south of you all the weekend warriors come to party it up..................
And its no better up in Fort Mac. You'd think some of these idiots would learn but they don't. Heard on the radio recently about some moron who was out shooting explosive targets just south of town. I can't wrap my head around that level of stupid.
Yep, a special kind of stupid for sure! A few days ago they arrested a man in Williams Lake, he was setting off fireworks celebrating the removal of the evacuation order, ***!! I've got a government owned sand pit at one end of my property, took two Pu loads of old microwaves, targets and other garbage out of there when we first bought the place, I've given an ear full to three separate parties in that pit so far this summer, last one was only a week ago... Trying to get permission to blockade the pit road with boulders, the sand isn't used anymore, got into too much silt. If I just go ahead and block it I'll get a big fine.
So... if it happens to get blocked who going to say you did it?
If they followed the tracks I could just say the ol' 790 is possessed, keeps moving boulders in the night, planning an exorcism! I'm just inquiring without saying any names nor location, if it turns into a gong show I'll just do it anyway!
Start complaining and "encourage" the government party responsible for it to clean up the mess promptly every time it happens. It probably won't take long to close it.
How far does it throw them. I seem to be getting more in my field all the time.
Just so happens a natural resource officer pulled in the yard to talk about my slash piles... He's going to see what he can do about it. 790 throws rocks good, haven't tried with the boulders I was thinking of, be a ride for sure, they gotta weigh 2 ton +