I'm back.

M

mikegranger

Active member
Guys,
I've been fighting fire all summer but am back now. Looks like things went well while I was gone. Thanks to everyone for jumping in, in the absence of me.

dragonsmouth.jpg


I call this picture "going into the mouth of the dragon"!
 
Mike, on the forest fires,,, is it better to let them burn, or does stopping them make it worse years later?? I'm not informed as well as a person in your field. In CA the news people said not letting them burn led them to where they are now? It must have been pretty scary when the prairies burned in the old days, the long grass prairies, like IA used to have.T.20
 
Tact20,
The long and short of it is we've been too successful over the past 75 years putting out fires. And as nature seems to do quiet often, it's batting last now. Too much fuel combined with warmer temperatures combines for monsterous wildfires. In Eastern Montana alone we've burned close to 900,000 acres this summer. So the answer is yes, we're now paying the price for not allowing fires to burn in a semi-natural state. I really don't see it getting much better though as we keep building houses where they shouldn't be. I watched 29 burn up a month ago. Nothing we could do!
 
We've had highly qualified professionals on both the firefighting and the forest management sides telling us for years what we need to do, and not do (Mike's houses reference).

The politicians just find it easier to ignore the people who know what their talking about and instead listen to the people with money and/or power, whether that's developers or eco-nuts. When well grounded science takes a back seat to money and politics, we all lose. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

Oh well, at least it keeps Mike gainfully employed at a job he enjoys. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Mike, any fires near Broadus,MT? I suppose some good trees have been burned in these fires. I don't feel bad for those huge, rich people homes, insurance probably covers most of the loss.
Would it help those homes if they cleared an area around it. Then disk the soil over if a fire is coming? Good luck on work if you need to go back out.T.20
 
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