A Glimpse of Hell Over the Horizon

The Sierra Times ^ | 20 June, 2002 | Tina Terry

[brityank]

A Glimpse of Hell Over the Horizon
Arizona Fire Report By Tina Terry
Sierra Times Ranch Hand
Published 06. 20. 02 at 23:52 Sierra Time

 

As I send this out, Show Low, Heber and Overgaard, Arizona - to the north of me, and not that far away, are burning out of control. Flames are leaping through the giant Ponderosa pines, destroying everything.

Thousands of wild animals are being killed, injured and being displaced. Thousands of people are evacuating, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homes are being destroyed. My family is preparing in case we need to evacuate from Payson.

And it's not even July yet. Three months of fire season to go here.

The federal government has so grossly mismanaged the national forests by permitting them to be overgrown and clogged with tinder that it's like we're sitting on a keg of gasoline - one that covers many hundreds of square miles.

Today one of our local firemen told me that the condition of the forests a hundred years ago was healthy - big trees didn't burn, and there were many many fewer trees per acre - fire thinned out the underbrush but didn't incinerate the total forest as it is doing today, and will probably do for weeks to come. The fires are burning so hot that they are burning everything, so hot that they are turning the ground to a glaze, through which water cannot penetrate - setting the stage for massive floods when we finally get rain. Right now we are praying for rain, but there's none in sight.

The way the forest was a hundred years ago was, the fireman explained, before the feds took over the national forests and "managed" them into the present state of tinder according to the insane enviro-Nazi policy of "We can't cut even one twig or let anything graze there." Dorks in D.C. making policy for forests they may never visit or understand. Moscow-on-the-Potomac policy - with the same disastrous results as the original Moscow produced when it micromanaged everything from the Kremlin.

Our solution, once these infernal fires have finally burned out - which may be weeks, months - is this:

Let all the governors of the Western states in which these federal goons ranging from incompetent dithering idiots to malicious sociopaths have created this horrific UNNATURAL situation band together and firmly declare to D.C. the following:

"You have mismanaged these federal lands, which lie within our state boundaries, so grossly and unethically that it has cost millions, maybe billions of dollars, destroyed human life and property and killed and displaced countless wildlife (where are PETA and their ilk while these poor animals are being slaughtered by these conflagrations caused by environmentalist insanity?)

"You have, by your insane policies, created a virtual Armageddon of unnatural havoc within our state borders. We shall therefore take over these lands and manage them ourselves by appointing local management to so do. To pay for this, we shall have our state residents refrain from sending their federal income taxes to Washington; these taxes will instead be placed in an escrow account, and will be used to repair the incalculable damage you have done to these lands within our borders, and to properly manage them so that they can be restored to health and to a safer condition.

"We'll hold local officials accountable for implementing sane policies. We won't redact their names if they are responsible for killing or injuring people, or for causing damage. We'll prosecute them if they do so.

"If there's anything left after doing this, we'll send the balance to D.C. so you can spend it on one of your countless other insane, bloated, administration-larded, unconstitutional programs - maybe the inept managing of our national borders..."

And just in case anyone has forgotten - remember Los Alamos, and the Forest Service's "controlled burn." These people cannot be trusted to act in our best interests. They are permitted to commit acts which, if committed in the private sector, would result in prosecution and jail time.

Please pray for us here in Arizona, and for all those in Colorado, who are suffering so mightily.

Pray for the poor critters, too. These innocents are suffering because of the inequities of humankind. It breaks my heart beyond description.

Tina Terry
Payson, Arizona

Editor's Note: Yesterday, the author of this article called the ranch office and asked, "Why is God doing this?" Well, Tina - there's your answer. God's not doing this. Government has done this, and we've got our work cut out for us. Terry Barton, the woman accused of starting the Colorado Fire, was released on bail yesterday. Just thought you folks would like to know that.

Yes, Tina: We'll keep you and others in our prayers.

© 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted)

[J_Sheridan]

Ohhh you saw it also?

[Destructor]

"The federal government has so grossly mismanaged the national forests by permitting them to be overgrown and clogged with tinder that it's like we're sitting on a keg of gasoline - one that covers many hundreds of square miles."

All of the mismanagement happened on President Clinton's watch! Under Clinton the government engaged in one of the biggest land grabs in U.S. History. The result was too much Federal land, and not enough employees to manage it all.

[brityank]

Today one of our local firemen told me that the condition of the forests a hundred years ago was healthy - big trees didn't burn, and there were many many fewer trees per acre - fire thinned out the underbrush but didn't incinerate the total forest as it is doing today, and will probably do for weeks to come. The fires are burning so hot that they are burning everything, so hot that they are turning the ground to a glaze, through which water cannot penetrate - setting the stage for massive floods when we finally get rain.

If anyone has any doubts as to why the idiotic watermelon policies of the Federal Government are so destructive, reread this.

Here is some more reading for deep background (click pic):

The wildfires that have ravaged the West in recent years have focused national attention on the condition of our forests. Why are they so susceptible to severe fires? And how can we prevent catastrophe? In Forests on the Sierra Nevada, George Gruell examines these treasured woodlands through repeat photography: rephotographing sites depicted in historical photographs to compare past vegetation--its distribution and condition--to present. The paired black-and-white photographs document natural and human-wrought changes in the Sierran ecosystem during the past 150 years--from the varied and generally open-canopy habitats of early European-American settlement days to the dense, declining forests of today.

Gruell's comparisons show just how much damage that the misguided policies the ecoterrorists have wrought in the past few decades. The 'roadless initiatives' will create more conflagrations that they will use to keep human activities out of the forests and stuff us all into 'sustainable communities'.

[KirklandJunction]

With all due respect to the author's OneNoteSamba, the Rodeo fire is now declared arson.

The fire over near Heber was also arson.....someone got lost and started a signal fire!

Sadly, between those two and that Barton in Colorado, the tinhat vigilantes are mumbling about patrolling the forests on their own, with a walkytalky as their second weapon.

Real good time to vacation in Florida.

[MissAmericanPie]

It's very hard to tell if it is government mismanagement of forests or part of the United Nations plan to run people out of areas and return the "resources" to the wild. No depth of corruption is above either entity.

Either way, the fed is getting what it wants, what happens to these inhabitants is of no consequence to them.

[KirklandJunction]

No, not ALL of the mismanagement. Read your history. There was a President named Teddy Roosevelt.....then FDR.......

[brityank]

J_Sheridan

member since June 21st, 2002

Ohhh you saw it also?

And this has to do with forest fires how?
If we don't get the Feral US Government under control, your friends in Argentina will have a lot less than they have now.
Welcome to Free Republic.

[brityank]

With all due respect to the author's OneNoteSamba, the Rodeo fire is now declared arson.

Most forest fires are arson, true? However, I am old enough to remember that back in the 50's and 60's, there were very few major conflagrations of the intensity and range that have occurred in the past decade. Closed forests are nothing but tinderboxes waiting for a spark, natural or man-made.

[Boonie Rat]

We shall therefore take over these lands and manage them ourselves by appointing local management to so do.

I don't forsee this ever happening. The reason: The fedgov will tell the states: We won't send you back 30% of the funds we steal from you to do your road repairs with and the states will kowtow, drop their pants, and smile. The states don't ever realize at this day in age that they, as creators of the federal government, dictate the rules!

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[KirklandJunction]

More bad news:

1. Due to the last four/five years of below average rain, the average humidity of living Ponderosal Pine in n.e. Arizona is below ten percent. Consumer lumber in retail stores is around nineteen percent.

2. More wind today.

[brityank]

While TR and others since have expanded the reach of the federal 'responsibility' for the national forests, it's only been in the last two decades that the watermelon orgs and UN policies for 'sustainable development' have enhanced the destruction of the environment.

Conservation is not a dirty word; environmentalism and their priests are.

[KirklandJunction]

Can't argue that a bit, but there's more.

More people, more media.

One of the reasons for this current Pinedale fire disaster is that decades ago Pinedale was two ranches. Period. Now they have tennis, golf, condos, boutiques, gas stations, miles and miles of paved roads to attract tourists, etc. Including a home of the Governor of Arizona, who was not born here, but does use state transportation for weekend trips from the state Capitol.

So many factors.

Strict immigration control should have started around 1490.

[Ben Ficklin]

The Big Burn of 1910

[glory]

THis is such a damn shame! We just moved from Arizona 6 mos. ago and this area is such beautiful country. We used to camp in the area quite regularly before we had children. It's sad to know it's being scorched and that possibly better managment may have contained the flames.

[glory]

You are right, it is terribly dry and rain has been sparse at best(except for 98 which seemed much more rainy to me than usual). I hate to say, but this fire will be even harder to contain than the Colorado fire because the conditions are so ripe for it.

[J_Sheridan]

LOL!

Yeah, run that by me again?

Remember who you are addressing your comments to.

Sure, I'm holding my breathe waiting for the truth, I might as well go down to the scuba shop first.

Point is, its a sore point.

501c has obligations, don't forget that posting non-offensive and non-vulgar messages that adhere to community standards can result in 501c status getting yanked. Yeah thats right, if you are tax exempt you have to let everybody in the golf house.

But don't worry.. and I don't... you know that as Arnold says: "I'll be back."

If you equate sweeping crap under the carpet with a clean house, your the fool not me!

[KirklandJunction]

Current plans are trying to stay alive and NOT in front of it, and "letting" it burn north across the Rim country, until it gets far enough north to run out of pine. Once it's in low brush area, pft! No fuel.

Hold on to those memories. It'll be a long while.

Remember the old Zane Grey cabin?

[oyez]

BFL