I haven’t heard any reports about abandoned campfires over the holiday weekend, but lightning did start a 20-acre fire northwest of here. Instead of putting it out, the fire managers plan to let it expand to about 1070 acres — it’s a healthy low-intensity fire that keeps forests from getting overgrown and later destroyed by a high-intensity fire like the one we had.
The Forest Service news release about the fire says,
Historically, low-intensity wildfires burned through southwestern dry conifer forests like the SFNF every seven to 15 years on average as part of a natural cycle that removed leaf litter, eradicated disease and thinned the understory, making room for new growth. Managing a lightning-caused ignition like the Naranjo Fire mimics that natural process and helps reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire by reducing fine fuels and debris on the forest floor.
If you are interested here’s a video about wildfires.
July 7, 2019
trouble is though, personnel do not always take proper precautions…I know it happened here a couple of times…and the fire took out a whole more than just undergrowth; we can see that in different parts of the world…
We had to evacuate in 2000 because a supposed “controlled burn” got away from them. It burned a number of houses in town, the ones next to the forest.
Ok, trying one more time.
My comment won’t go through about the dogs keeping cool and having fun in the culvert. Maybe it will let me comment here?
I’m unable to see the video. Dang it.
I hope the burn goes as planned.
xo
I don’t know why you can’t see the video, but the reason this comment didn’t go through is it needed to be approved. You misspelled your email address (put ail.com instead of aol.com). I have my blog set so a commenter only has to be approved once, and apparently WordPress looks at the email address.
How interesting. I never considered that a fire could actually be beneficial like that
That’s why they suppressed fires for so long — they didn’t know that either.
Last summer here in North Idaho had so much smoke, hopeful it lighter or none at all.
Coffee is on
Apparently it’s been bad in Montana too, that’s where Andy is from. Good luck for you this year!
I remember years ago the fires in Yellowstone, and as terrible as they were, they showed how it helped with the health of the forest. But then there’s the otherside. I’m worried about the ones in Alaska.
I haven’t been reading about the wildfires in Alaska, but I know they think the fires in Yellowstone turned out to be a plus after a long time. I don’t know why, but WordPress put your comments in the spam folder and I just now checked it. Usually WP works fine if the commenter has been approved once. I’m sorry I didn’t notice earlier.
Very interesting. We have a park here that does a purposeful burn like that every so often. Still scary. Even scarier is I’ve got two neighbors who do campfires often in the yards and the smoke fills up my bedroom. I’m surprised my smoke alarms don’t go off. I hate fires!
Your neighbors’ fires would be scary. Apparently we need to have a permit now to burn outdoors up on the land, even though campfires are permitted in the surrounding forests.
Good luck!