[Kathy in Alaska]

The Caribou Hills fire burns through forest Thursday, June 21, 2007, east of Ninilchik, Alaska. Firefighters continued efforts to protect nearby cabins and an electrical transmission line. Photo by M. Scott Moon / The Associated Press

Caribou Hills fire: Flying over Anchorage at about 11:20 a.m. June 20, 2007. Photo courtesy of Mike Murphy / ADN reader submission

A DC-6 tanker belonging to the State of Alaska drops a load of fire retardant (red cloud) on the Caribou Hills fire June 20, 2007. RICH WEBSTER / Alaska Division of Forestry

Residents watch as fire continues to consume beetle-kill trees in the Caribou Hills area June 20, 2007, near Homer. A 2,500-acre fire burning on the Kenai Peninsula about 30 miles north of Homer started when sparks from a grinder being used to sharpen a shovel fell into dry grass, Division of Forestry officials said. SEAN PEARSON / Homer Tribune via The Associated Press

And the reason there are so many beetle-kill trees is because the envirowackos stopped the harvesting while the timber was still good. Now it burns!

[fatima]

So that’s where the smoke is coming from.

[HiJinx]

We have the same problem with beetle infestations in the forests up around Payson AZ.

If they go up, a whole lot of people are going to get burned out...that town is built right smack dab in the middle of the Tonto National Forest.

Okay, to be honest, the town came first. But is surrounded by thousands of acres of tender tinder timber.