North American Fires

kiwikid

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2012
Messages
728
Location
New Zealand
Hello All,

For some time now we have been seeing reports of the various fires that are currently raging across various States and Provences of both the USA and Canada.
My wife and I would like to pass on our commiserations to all the LRH Members that have been directly or indirectly affected by these devastating fires.
Our thoughts are with you and we wish you well.
I apologize that this is not a Hunting Thread.

Kiwikid.
 
Hello All,

For some time now we have been seeing reports of the various fires that are currently raging across various States and Provences of both the USA and Canada.
My wife and I would like to pass on our commiserations to all the LRH Members that have been directly or indirectly affected by these devastating fires.
Our thoughts are with you and we wish you well.
I apologize that this is not a Hunting Thread.

Kiwikid.
Your thoughts are much appreciated but with two years of above normal rainfall there was just a huge buildup of brush and we all saw it coming. Way too much fuel, too many idiots with matches and the normal monsoon season after things dried out made it inevitable.
 
Gonna be a Smokey August. I just hope I never in my life have to fight wildfires like we did last year
 
Here in NZ during the summer it is not uncommon to have districts that have Total Fire Bans and yet every year we have idiots that think it is OK to burn their rubbish in their back yard. For the last few years these total fire ban areas are listed at the end of the weather forecast on the National TV channel every night so it is not as if the information isn't out there.
 
We saw billions and billions of board feet of beetle killed timber go to waste here because the Forest Service wouldn't stand up to the Environmentalist in Court and give a coherent defense in why logging was such an important part of fire reduction..I have to agree they don't want them put out.... When was the last time a D8 cat was put on the ground to go make fire line... This fire fighting is big big business and seems to be the only thing the Joke Service and BLM want to do these days. No money or employees cruising timber for timber sales... no range management except 40 worthless clowns out pounding in no motor vehicle travel on roads that have been open for 80 years.. .The local TV News started their reporting of our up coming fire season way last March..Priming the people for the on going business adventures of so called fire fighting...I guess instead of looking at all the jack straw blown down rotting bug killed timber and having to answer anyone questions about that when it burns the evidence is gone.. Like it never happened.... Lightning is the major cause of fires.... Man caused at a very small number but man caused makes the news... Used to be every logger and farmer went and put the fires out as soon as they started ... now they leave them burn till they get big enough to make news ..If anyone took care of their dog the way the Government has our forests and grass land they would be in jail for pet abuse.
 
And before we were here there were no fires, no beetle kill, and no lightning started fires right!?
The way the govt keeps backing down from everything is a joke, I'll give you that, from being sued left and right by environmentalists and from the very top having hiring freezes it doesn't help! Another great example is how they just backed down from the multiple encounters with ranchers that wont pay the absurdly cheap grazing fees that I dont believe have changed price since the 60's!

The majority of these decisions are made by suits in their cozy offices not the common sense people on the ground.
 
And before we were here there were no fires, no beetle kill, and no lightning started fires right!?
No. Native Americans put the fires out, ate the beetles, and put copper lightning rods on the tallest trees. The reason we have so many uncontrollable widlfires is because the Forest Service and other land management agencies practiced stomp um all out "Smokey Bear" fire mismanagement for over a century. After they had managed to allow enough fuel to accumulate to heat every home in North America and Europe for a decade, nature caught up with them. Now the problem is too large to do much about. Flammable forests burn....their own flammability assures their long term survival. The tax payer has paid for years of data collection at Range Experiment Stations. All of them have been saying for years....we should have quit putting all the **** fires out decades ago. I finally retired as a fire ecology specialist with Interior with full knowledge that the problems we created in fire suppression are beyond out ability to mitigate on a national scale. You just wait for the big ones, like in Oregon and California, and then move on...hopefully to better management policy.
 
The use of purpose set fires by native peoples is well documented. Absent humans, drought and fire have been a reality in the west for thousands of years. John Muir got all his preservationist wishes, and the Yosemite area is closed again this year, folks have been evacuated multiple times in 2 years.

Fire depends on O2, heat, and fuel, the only thing that's changed is the amount of fuel on the ground. I can take you to spots here where the pine needles are knee deep. It's head high sage brush in some places. In 2006 we drove through BC with hundreds of miles of beetle killed timber. I mean zero green trees, tightly grouped. A couple of years later in a rather tongue in cheek assessment a BC official pronounced the Pine Beetle epidemic over as they had ate it all. California imported Eucalyptus a hundred years ago, and it brought it's own unique issues.

Our local DNR turned away over 300 trained certified volunteers, many with their own heavy equipment. This while houses burned, and hospitals filled with those choking on smoke.

The issue isn't a couple of kids with firecrackers. It's how much money we allow foreign interest to use groups of fringe nuts, and corrupt bureaucrats to rule over our energy interests. It's the failure of the average citizen to realize this is the goal, and it's not ignorance it's malice.

https://www.facebook.com/IdahovsUSFS/photos/rpp.488586294645257/725979280905956/?type=3&theater

Whether it's wolves, timber, mining, grazing, or farming comments like this from the swamp have been common, and reveal an agenda.
 
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