Well Golly... from the swirling waters and thundering hail... into the smoky fire! The Northern Front Range is takin' a whuppin'!
I'd been doing work on the bike at the kids place in Denver the day before. Had my laptop in the garage so I could pull up the Yamaha service manual I have loaded on it... If I got lost. ;) ... and when I left in the evening... I left my laptop, sitting in the garage!
Then... When Heidi left... with the truck to do some Bead Cache work... I failed to pull the tools out of it I'd need to replace the two roof vents that got busted in the hail storm...
So... 'thout any way to do any work... Might as well climb on the Raider for a ride! ... Right? :)
Got to the end of the driveway where we're parked and this was the view that came out from behind the windbreak... I'd not even known there was a fire
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| *Paradise Valley Fire* |
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| *Evening on the Paradise Valley Fire* |
This morning I woke to the smell of a campfire... and a sky that looked overcast... only there's not a cloud in the sky... just smoke.
That there kids is just one more example of what happens when you mix; prohibiting ALL fire for a hundred years, prohibit logging (to save the precious trees) to at least clear out the overgrown forest that would have been cleared by natural fire... and then compound that with drought conditions...
What do ya'll think happens when you cause, by misguided, feel good witch doctor Tree Hugging, the forest population to multiply by a factor of... oh... six or seven? So that you've got 80 trees trying to live where there used to only be 10? and they ALL have to exist on the same Water and nutrients...
Yup... weakened, insect vulnerable, dried up FUEL.
Kind of the same thoughtless, willfully ignorant mentality that brought the wolf back the way they did that.
One ignorant, lame brained thing after another.
Sure, in the late 1800's and early 1900's there was some logging that was done improperly. So the answer was to fix that by going IMPROPERLY to the opposite extreme? ... Really Smart thinking.
Intelligent, Husbanding of the forests, like you do a garden was the answer and still is... How many let the weeds overrun their gardens? You pull 'em, you thin the crop and produce a healthy garden right? Well Gee... is the Forest really so much different?
One of the HUGE fallacies about Forest Management is the foolishness about "Balanced Eco Systems". There is NO "System"... There is no Balance. If you want Natural you had better accept that NATURE is a world of Savage IMBALANCE.
So, we can do nothing and pretend the twisted, facetious and Non-Existant idea of Natural Balance will produce the world we want... or simply IMPOSE the good Forest Husbandry Of A Rancher/Gardner that promotes the best and most productive use of the land for ALL its inhabitants... even... GASP!... People!
From an economic standpoint... Wouldn't it be much better to restore the logging towns and the resulting employment and community that would create; that the Sierra Club/Wilderness Society Cabal destroyed... and Properly manage the Forests in the bargain... while people make a good living, doing a good job... rather than pouring the millions, if not billions into the impotent and failing effort at fire fighting on these continuous, out of control, far more intense and damaging than they would have been, fires?
The thing is... Momma Nature won't be denied. Either we can do our job... Accept our responsibilities for the land that we live on... or Momma Nature will! :) and kids... She's got her undies in a knot and her discipline is a comin'! The overgrown forests mismanaged at the insistence of, and as the result of lawsuits by the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society and all the others, are going to be "Fixed", whether the Bambi Believers like it or not... the result being a whole lot of anguish, ashes and wasted resources.
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| *Thank You Sierra Club... Your Foolishness is Working so Well* |
So... in the morning... we're moving on up to a camp about 20 miles or so north of the flames. Planning on a ten day camp or so... until Heidi has to return to do two weeks covering the store for a manager vacation.
Guess I'll keep an eye open to the south huh?
Just Shakin' My Head at Some "Ideas"
Brian
2 comments:
Exactly what has happened to my home turf in east central Oregon. There hasn't any big fires there for some time now. Probably because there ain't much left to burn. The thing that really ticks me off is that a lot of useable timber was left to rot after the fire because they wouldn't let most of it be salvaged. Aw shoot don't get me started. Howiet
Another Oregonian here who wishes I had said what you just said!! Amen, brother, a little common sense would go a long way in forest management (and a lot of other things as well).
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