[woodbutcher1963]

The northern pine beetle has killed off millions of acres of timber throughout North America. The Canadians have been very aggressive in their harvest of this timber to keep the wildfires from happening throughout BC and AB. There were fires similar to this around Kelowna, BC a few years back.

The US has been much less aggressive in harvesting this dead timber on its Federal and state lands. This is primarily because of government bureaucracy's and injunctions filed by environmental groups in court to delay timber sales. The result is millions of acres of dead standing timber just waiting for the next lightning strike or carelessly thrown match.

[CedarDave]

LIVE UPDATES: 11:29 a.m.: Black Forest fire by the numbers . . .

Containment: 0 percent

Deaths / injuries: None reported

Acres burned: 15,000

Homes burned: 360 destroyed / 14 damaged

People evacuated: 38,000 people

Homes evacuated: 13,000

Evacuation area: 55 square miles.

Firefighters on scene: 500 estimated