[pct-l] Fires

[pcnst@oakapple.net (pcnst@oakapple.net)]

> Are you going just
> smile and watch it burn, knowing that it will probably not return to its
> former splendor within your lifetime?

Thinking of the area around Campo Creek and also Hat Creek Rim, and also
Yellowstone a few years ago, I can't help but notice how much splendor of
wildflowers there is, that's mostly missing in old growth forests that
haven't burned much lately, such as most of Oregon section D.
A variety of splendors generally beats monoculture, even if the monoculture
is the climax forest.      Generally in Yosemite in the summer there is
at least one lightning fire burning somewhere in the backcountry.
That area gets closed off until it burns itself out or the rains come.

> I'll simply say that you have NO RIGHT to call
> into question the motives of the people out there on the fire lines.

No one did, for the most part.    Read the article and you'll see
that it's mostly (who else) large corporations and the MBA's running them
that make the big bucks.
It's mostly just a dirty dangerous low-paid job out there actually on the lines.

HOWEVER I was amazed to read that it's not nearly as uncommon as I supposed
that firefighters will set fires.      There was a case in the EBRPD in
the 1970's where a firefighter was arrested for arson - turns out he just
liked the overtime - I thought it was an isolated case, but maybe not that
isolated after all.    READ THE AUDUBON ARTICLE!

However as an Oregon meteorologist told me many years ago, a drought and
a good stiff wind from the east will create an unstoppable fire.    It won't
be contained until the weather changes, and fighting one of those on a large
scale is like burning money - but note that doesn't argue against trying to
save houses on a small scale where that's possible.
If people won't build, and live, fire-safe in a fire environment, sooner
or later they will lose the luck of the draw.    It's like smoking in bed.
Normally wet climates
like the Cascades are actually a greater risk than more desert climes,
because a drought is a much bigger change from the norm.
Climate is just an average, and the standard deviation has been lower than
normal for the last century, I've heard, and that may be why fire suppression
appeared to work for a while.


And to inject a note of levity into a grim subject and also tie it to recent
threads:    Remember boys and girls - forest fires help prevent bears!