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Smokey in seattle today

check

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
800
Location
in the mail
Monday 005.JPG Flare-up 012.JPG Near fire 007.JPG 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.Near fire 007.JPG Flare-up 012.JPG Monday 005.JPG Flare-up 012.JPG Monday 005.JPG Flare-up 012.JPG
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
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.
 

Ronsii

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
3,464
Location
Western Washington
Occupation
s/e Heavy equipment operator
Drove through the fort lewis military reservation yesterday and they were still doing controlled burns.. lots of smoke going up!
 

GregsHD

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2014
Messages
557
Location
Mahood Falls, BC
Occupation
Self Employed HD Mechanic
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 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.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
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.
 

Sidney43

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2011
Messages
175
Location
Nampa, Idaho (recent)
Occupation
Retired
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.
 

dirty4fun

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
1,188
Location
N. IL
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.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
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.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
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.
 

check

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
800
Location
in the mail
Monday 001.JPG 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.
 

old-iron-habit

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
4,233
Location
Moose Lake, MN
Occupation
Retired Cons't. Supt./Hospitals
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.
 

lantraxco

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
7,704
Location
Elsewhen
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.
 

check

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
800
Location
in the mail
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.
 

lantraxco

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
7,704
Location
Elsewhen
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.
 

Sidney43

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2011
Messages
175
Location
Nampa, Idaho (recent)
Occupation
Retired
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.
 
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