Fires across Colorado

[Aloha_Shooter]

Makes for beautiful sunsets but wow ...

[JohnnyDrama]

We are reaping the reward of forestry mismanagement for over 100 years. In 1910 wildfires totaling 3+ million acres went through Idaho and Montana killing many. This was the catalyst for modern wildfire fighting ideology.
Ever since then every fire has been aggressively fought without taking into account fires role in western coniferous forest ecology. Fire is needed for healthy forests. It keeps the Western Pine beetle in check, Ponderosa cones wont open without it, it keeps undergrowth managed to name a few.

Now when we have a fire it is a rager that cannot be contained.

I thought the forests were "managed" as they are so the USDA can sell logging/grazing permits and turn a profit on the natural resources. The result has been overcrowded forests with the same end you mentioned.

[roberth]

We are reaping the reward of forestry mismanagement for over 100 years. In 1910 wildfires totaling 3+ million acres went through Idaho and Montana killing many. This was the catalyst for modern wildfire fighting ideology.
Ever since then every fire has been aggressively fought without taking into account fires role in western coniferous forest ecology. Fire is needed for healthy forests. It keeps the Western Pine beetle in check, Ponderosa cones wont open without it, it keeps undergrowth managed to name a few.

Now when we have a fire it is a rager that cannot be contained.

Yes!!!

[MrPrena]

Hey Liberals! Stop burning woods and do KUM BAH YAH hippie gathering on Camp fireplace and cause Forrest fire!
You are burning down the Forrest to cause Global Warming! (or Global Burning).

[Gman]

We are reaping the reward of forestry mismanagement for over 100 years. In 1910 wildfires totaling 3+ million acres went through Idaho and Montana killing many. This was the catalyst for modern wildfire fighting ideology.
Ever since then every fire has been aggressively fought without taking into account fires role in western coniferous forest ecology. Fire is needed for healthy forests. It keeps the Western Pine beetle in check, Ponderosa cones wont open without it, it keeps undergrowth managed to name a few.

Now when we have a fire it is a rager that cannot be contained.

Were you in my forestry classes in college? ;-)

Logging has been deemed as evil (and kills spotted owls). Controlled burns are 'bad for the environment'.

Trees don't live forever. You can harvest them, or they will burn, which is part of their lifecycle. Normally, forests are a patchwork of areas that have burned at different intervals. This results in a mixed ecosystem of deciduous and coniferous trees in different stages of life, which creates natural fire breaks and helps to limit huge fires. The mixed forest is also a host to diverse fauna.

I guess it's easier to just bend over to popular opinion rather than try and educate the masses.

[BPTactical]

My Forestry class started right after high school. It was the school of hard knocks. I spent 3 years on a USFS saw crew doing tree stand improvement, beetle kill mitigation, line clearing, fire risk mitigation and such. Worked 4 actual fires that were small in size, we were back ups to the back up crews. Even though they were small fires, <50 acres it is hard, hot and dangerous work.
I can’t imagine being on a Type I or Type II crew that is front line on these big ones.
May the Lord watch over them.

[StagLefty]

Up and out for a walk early this morning. Haze during sunrise was unreal. Everyone talks about the haze in the west but I was stunned by the eerie look in the east !!

[buffalobo]

My Forestry class started right after high school. It was the school of hard knocks. I spent 3 years on a USFS saw crew doing tree stand improvement, beetle kill mitigation, line clearing, fire risk mitigation and such. Worked 4 actual fires that were small in size, we were back ups to the back up crews. Even though they were small fires, <50 acres it is hard, hot and dangerous work.
I can?t imagine being on a Type I or Type II crew that is front line on these big ones.
May the Lord watch over them.

^^^This.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I thought the forests were "managed" as they are so the USDA can sell logging/grazing permits and turn a profit on the natural resources. The result has been overcrowded forests with the same end you mentioned.

I think it started long before that with the old Smokey the Bear "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" campaigns. Back then, any forest fires were viewed as bad so the effort was turned to tamping them all out immediately -- end result was a build-up of fuel. The selling of permits started IIRC with the Reagan or Bush administrations as a way to bring revenue other than income taxes into the federal government. It had the side benefit of clearing out some of the growth but has always had to fight the environuts who only saw "old growth" forests being decimated.

To be fair, the most economically profitable (in the short term) way to harvest is clear-cutting but I think decimation -- picking out trees sparsely -- has a better long term effect in preventing massive fires so there's a need to balance the harvesting operations as well.

[roberth]

I70 is open through Glenwood Canyon