…but it’s really a forest. Or it was yesterday. Now it’s a whole big bunch of violations of one of Al Gore’s imaginary laws, and who knows who’s going to the gulag for it.
Yesterday a fire went from nothing to thousands of acres in a few hours, pushed by the remarkable wind we get around here. When I went out with the dogs before bed last night the air was smoky and raining ash. The scent kept me uneasy all night in atavistic defiance of my knowledge that it’s many miles away and in a completely different environment. This environment doesn’t cater to wildfires even though junipers burn really well. It’s the same deal as that big fire in 2011: We’re downwind and get all the benefit of anxiety and stuffed sinuses, but we’re in no actual danger. Which is why people send their livestock here for safe-keeping. Also why the wildlife runs here, another dubious benefit. But we don’t seriously worry about losing our homes – a very real benefit.
Can’t speak for anybody else, but eight years in the desert has given me a romantic, almost Sierra-Club-like reverent attitude toward pine forests and I don’t like it when they burn down. But burning down seems to be one of the things you can expect them to do, so on with life we go. Looks like I’m going to be breathing one all day today.
Regular fires are a good thing if they haven’t been suppressed in the past. Suppression only makes them destructive when they inevitably do occur. Fire controls bugs, weak and overgrown timber and recycles nutrients. Most of the west is plagued by beetle killed pines. All of that is man’s fault for wanting housing in the trees and more timer production. Find Smokey the Bear and shoot him.
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One strange thing is in the 1871 a vast prairie fire swept central Wisconsin and killed thousands of people. The fire was so hot that trees roots many feet underground burned as did people sheltering in the bottom of shallow wells and rivers. The official death toll is 1500 but that is only a partial count. The Peshtigo fire is little know as it occurred the same day as the great Chicago fire. This same area now is essentially fire proof as man changed the flora to what he preferred.
The San Juan fire is bufning south of Vernon, and looks like it will stay out of Vernon. Which is good, have to many friends there to worry about. But, the folks will talk to their friends and we’ll stand by with food and other supplies in case of need like we did for the Wallow fire in 11. It is ironic that the fire is burning between the spaces cleared by the Rodeo-Chediski and Wallow fires.
We’re probably 60 miles crow-fly away & we could actually see the glow from it last night. Hoping they get it under control quickly. Had a couple of people from Vernon call yesterday to insure homes. Really???
Fires used to be an important part of the ecosystem. Some trees can’t even reproduce very well without it.
Problem is, 100 years of full-on supression has turned many forests into tinder boxes, as the dry dead stuff that collects hasn’t burned off in small fires over the years. Once it collects to a certain amount, there’s no stopping the firestorm that results.
Proscribed burns are a good thing.
As for the certainty that you cannot get fires there, I would still clear any accumulated brush and grass near the abode, if you haven’t already.
Certainty? You must be joking, Goober, you read this blog. There is no certainty. In fact a regular Spring paying gig is clearing away blown-in brush from various places before the dry/lightning season.
Be that as it may I know where there have been plenty of spot fires, generally started by lightning. They tend not to spread far, even though we have lots of wind.