Fire-It's Coming to A Forest Near You

Patriot Trading Group ^ | June 24, 2002 | Mariah Wilson

[Justanumba]

Fire-It's Coming to A Forest Near You

Mariah Wilson (c) 2002 mariahwilson@yahoo.com

Do you love the Mountain West? The incomparable scenic vistas? The incredible parks? The way the wind rustles through the trees? Do you have special forest places that you like to visit again and again? Do you love it so much that you live in the mountains? That you built your whole life around the experience of living with trees, flora and fauna?

Well, take a good look at it while you can. In fact, better take a trip this summer. Don't put it off. Don't wait. Take a look at what's left of the magnificent Mountain West. And take a look at what's gone as well, if you have the stomach for it.

I remember Yellowstone before the fires. You know I just flat out loved that park. The last time I was there 10 years after it burned, I cried the whole time. I couldn't wait to get out of the Park to private property, where people protect and care for the land rather than allowing it to be destroyed by something entirely preventable.

I saw the Bandolier National Monument and the forests around Los Alamos before that fire. I drank of their beauty. They are gone now, irretrievably, utterly gone. It takes 150-200 years to replace a forest devastated by wildfire. We will never get them back in our lifetime.

I saw Pike's Peak in Colorado and the whole area that has now burned. I marveled at its glory, it's elegant pageantry. I have to say goodbye to it now. I can hardly bear to lose it. It is almost beyond imagining that poor forest management has destroyed this area. I have wonderful photographs that I took. Not that I could stand to look at them now.

Oh, and don't get me started on the White Mountains of Arizona. I drove through them a couple of years ago, and wondered why I had not visited them before; they were such a special, unique place. Little did I know, that I was seeing them in their splendor for the last time.

I can't leave out the incomparable Bitterroot Valley in Montana or the wilderness areas that burned in the North Cascades, where I live in the mountains, surrounded by Federal and State forests that need thinning desperately, with no access roads, firebreaks, or any sort of proper land management going on. Believe me, the entire Mountain West is like this. It is a disgrace that this has been allowed to happen. I've been there. I've seen it. The Federal Government has sucked up all the prime mountain property under their control. They and environmentalists have teamed up to sign a death warrant on our National Heritage.

When I need balm for my spirit or a lift for my mind, I like to hit the road and explore the Mountain West. It is one of my most cherished past times. But, next time you see a beautiful forest, one that makes your heart sing, one that fills you with that indescribable love of country, one that imbues you with the joy that you live on God's green earth, be sure you take a good, long look at it and be sure that your children do as well. Because that forest may not be there next summer, or the summer after that. There's a good chance that it will be gone forever. Gone in flames. We are losing our forests and hopefully people will wake up and realize who is to blame.

[Carry_Okie]

Did Rosemary ever contact you??

I called. Left a message. No.

She's all hyped up between Pres. Bush being in town and getting ready to air in NY on 9/ll...

I was going to try again at about 10:30 Tuesday morning.

[tubebender]

Earlier this evening I was reading last weeks Barrons and they had a article on the fires in the west and how it will depress second home values as it has in the past. We are no longer being effected by the smoke from the Biscuit Fire here in Eureka but we still have at least a month or more to worry about fire danger in the West.

[madfly]

Ping for Oregon and Arizona Blackened Acres.
500,000+ each.

[madfly]

Would you use your magic list and your pinging talent for me?

Magic pingz and faerie dust
at your service, sir!

madfly

[WaterDragon]

ping for private property and capitalism!

[Eustace]

Why would the government create a tenderbox out of their forests?

Blowing it off as stupidity is too easy.

It appears to me that the greenwienies have become an extention of the landgrabbing government.

They use fish as an excuse to prevent farmers from earning a living in Klamath Falls.

They use fish as an excuse to refuse water to firefighters.

They use lies and planted evidence to prevent people access to public lands. And they are trying to flood thousands of people of off their land in Florida.

The UN does stuff like this in other countries , controlling people through their land use rules.

To me it appears that problems are being created so that a solution can be presented , because "We" are just not responsible enough to manage our own land. Today the greenwienies tomorrow the UN.

Either way American's lose.

[Grampa Dave]

Great article.

Thanks to the insane enviral whackos, a so called good fire by their definition, a lightening fire struck in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

The Floristry Circus Klowns (not the fire fighters), forced the fire fighters to stay out of the wilderness as the good fires raged inside of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The fire fighters could only act when the two fires at that time, the Florence Fire and the Biscuit Fire threatened to consume the two Oregone up in smoke counties around the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

Now that fire has consumed over 500,000 acres. The lesbo PR division of the Floristry Circus Klowns have down graded the size of the fire a few acres below 500,000 as another PR lie.

My grandchildren, age 18 months and 3 years old, even if they live to be 100, will probably never seen anything of real beauty in the Former Kalmiopsis Wilderness. That is the legacy of the Mentally Insane Green Jihadists in Oregon and their good fire agendas.

This excellent thread of yours, shows that this Burn Baby Burn insanity of the Mentally Insane Green Jihadists agendas in out of the Floristry Circus has contributed to fires like the Biscuit Fire for over 10 years.

Time to remove these criminally insane Green Jihadists from their illegal power and start locking them up with other serial killers in our prisons.

[Grampa Dave]

Welcome back Grammy Dixie!

[madfly]

bttt

[Granof8]

Thanks for the ping.

[Granof8]

Amen, Grampa Dave. You tell it like it is.

[Grampa Dave]

Good morning and thanks for your kind words.

How is the smoke and everything where you live this morning?

[Granof8]

It appears that more than a few of the local folks are aware of the Forest Service's let it burn policy. I missed the original article but the letter to the editor caught my eye.

Letter to the Editor, Curry Coastal Pilot, August 31
"Editor: Your story on the Pistol River fire meeting (Aug. 21) alluded to "heated comments." They didn't come from anyone fighting the fire. Though with being called "incompetent, you don't know how to fight a wild fire, loggers could do a better job, you shouldn't be making minimum wage," I was amazed at their restraint." (snip)
"This isn't the biggest wildfire we've ever had in Oregon and it won't be out last. Let's hope they'll want to come back, when we need them."

The article:
FIRE MANAGERS CONFIDENT THEY WILL 'LASSO' FIRE
Published: August 21, 2002
By Charles Kocher
Pilot Publisher

PISTOL RIVER - Managers of the massive effort on the western flanks of the Biscuit Fire expressed confidence Tuesday night that they are about to "close the lasso" around the wildfire very soon.

But some residents of the Pistol River area, where the last fire lines are closing together, told officials they are worried about the east winds predicted for later this week.

"We're confident," said Steve Fry, incident team commander for the southwestern corner of the Biscuit Fire, "but it's going to take some time and we're very patient."

"We're looking fairly optimistic," agreed Scott Vale, incident commander on the northwest corner of the fire. "The good thing is we're aggressive about reducing the area where a fire could come out (of the contingency lines.) We could pick up any spillover rather quickly."

Some in the crowd questioned whether the fire management has been too patient and might lose a battle if the predicted east winds do push the fire out of their control.

"You've squandered five days of good weather," one man complained about the waiting game along the fire line in the East Fork of Pistol River. "You don't have a prayer of holding it in an east wind." (snip)

[Granof8]

Looks good today, no smoke.

[AuntB]

No smoke??? We must have it bad because we're in such a "bowl". I can't see the foothills less than a mile away. Everyone is sick. I'm glad it's better out your way.