CFP: President Trump promised to bring fresh ideas and policies to Washington. Now Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue are doing exactly that in a critically important area: forest management and conflagration prevention. Their actions are informed, courageous and long overdue.
Westerners are delighted, and I’ve advocated such reforms since my days on Capitol Hill in the 1980s.
As of September 12, amid this typically long, hot, dry summer out West, 62 major forest fires are burning in nine states, the National Interagency Fire Center reports. The Interior Department and Ag Department’s Forest Service have already spent over $2 billion fighting them. That’s about what they spent in all of 2015, previously the most costly wildfire season ever, and this season has another month or more to go. The states themselves have spent hundreds of millions more battling these conflagrations.
Millions of acres of forest have disappeared in smoke and flames—1.1 million in Montana alone. All told, acreage larger than New Jersey has burned already. However, even this hides the real tragedies.
The infernos exterminate wildlife habitats, roast eagle and spotted owl fledglings alive in their nests, immolate wildlife that can’t run fast enough, leave surviving animals to starve for lack of food, and incinerate organic matter and nearly every living creature in the thin soils. They turn trout streams into fish boils, minus the veggies and seasonings. Future downpours and rapid snowmelts bring widespread soil erosion into streambeds. Many areas will not grow trees or recover their biodiversity for decades.
Most horrifically, the conflagrations threaten homes and entire communities. They kill fire fighters and families that cannot get away quickly enough, or get trapped by sudden walls of flames.
In 2012, two huge fires near Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colorado burned 610 homes, leaving little more than ashes, chimneys and memories. Tens of thousands of people had to be evacuated through smoke and ash that turned daytime into choking night skies. Four people died. A 1994 fire near Glenwood Springs, CO burned 14 young firefighters to death. more here
Oh, how I love my President! Finally. Someone in authority gets it. Many of us have been saying this for years. We, in the Columbia River Gorge, are right now experiencing the worst forest fire fallout of my life time. For most of the last 2+ weeks, the air quality has been such that children should not be playing outdoors. (You try keeping a claustrophobic N95 mask on a five year old!) And we have a governor that not only fully supports the BS that causes fires to become this dangerous, she is refusing to use all means available to put out the fires. She has refused use of certain large capacity aircraft, and deferred using trained National Guardsman to help fight the fires. Subsequent to them being trained, specifically, as firefighters. People frequently speak of returning National Forrest land back to the states; however, in Oregon, that would probably only serve to make the situation worse.
I pray, daily, for this man and for a resurgence of common sense practicality.
@Indimex — The Eagle Creek fire is an abomination that just shouldn’t have been allowed to blow up like it has. I’m really sorry that it’s in your backyard. That is one of the best — or was one of the best — hikes in the Gorge.
We in the west spend an inordinate amount of money to train people and buy equipment to fight these fires, then we’ve got the Jay Inslee’s of the world who refuse to use those resources! I’m especially aware of the 747 Super Tanker that is available to these states for fire fighting. The dump range on them is amazing and they won’t use them!
I hope the rains come early to your part of the northwest. We’ve still got smoke/ash in Seattle from some of the Cascade fires. I’ve never seen it like this before.
enviroterrorists- the original antifa…should’ve been wiped out long ago.
Years ago a “scientific” report said that beetle killed trees were no danger because the trees had no needles to transfer the fire from one to another. Now they’re saying fires are getting so big because of beetle kill. So much for “settled science.”
No mention about how much it cost to fly a 747 non stop for days. Think that might have something to do with increased costs?
@a non a moose — The cost of losing that much timber is far and away a greater loss than the cost of operating a super tanker. You would think the last conflagration in Yellow Stone would have set them straight. You know these fires burn so hot they sterilize the forest floor. It takes years/decades for anything to grow back. Stupid econuts and their “settled science.”
Abigail;
please see this video, may answer your questions; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTeGM4iAhhw
My son-in-law is a Forest Service type 4 engine captain & my daughter is the finance section chief on a type 2 incident management team. They live in western MT and have been on fires continuously now for nearly three months, much of it on the Sprague fire in GNP. They both agree the current policies are just insane and have lost firefighting friends.
In 2003 nearly 17% of the park burned. The NPS refused to thin the forests and even refused to initially fight the fires after they started from lightning strikes. Once they became monstrously large they changed their minds but it was too late by then and many burned until the snow flew.
Our families have lived, farmed, and ranched near the western slopes of the Northern Rockies for over a 100 years. It saddens us every summer to see this happen. Thank the Lord someone’s creating a thoughtful and reasoned solution yet I’m holding my breath until a federal activist in a black robe will place a roadblock in their way. I won’t have to wait long (sigh).
the billions-funded professional Environmental Industry has never been about the environment. It’s all about increasing the Gummint’s stranglehold on private individuals. Despicable.
We finally got a measurable rainfall in Spokane area after 80 days without rain, thank goodness. And more rain and cooler temperatures are coming over the next couple of days. The smoke from all the fires over Washington and Oregon, Montana and Canada was so bad a couple of weeks ago we were in the unhealthy and almost hazardous categories of poor air quality. I have never seen smoke this bad or this thick before ever, it was bad for quite a while and maybe finally the rain help wash it out. Literally there were days when you could smell the smoke and taste it as well all over not just Eastern Wash. all of Central Wash and even Seattle, clear thru out Idaho and over into Montana. Normally I’m not a big fan of fall and winter but this year I’m all for it after too many smoke filled days and 90 + degree days. And none of this is due to globull warming or so called climate change, it’s mostly because the forests are so dry and poor management of timber resources we have a lot of these problems.
Doesn’t the EPA have real live important things to do like cleaning the Animas River?
@a non a moose — thanks! But I’m not buying the “visibility” excuse. All large fires have reduced visibility and most have terrain problems, too. That’s why they get so big because of difficult accessibility. I read an article (local, but can’t remember source) quoting the owners of the 747 that they couldn’t get contracts with WA/OR fire authorities and that’s why they weren’t being used up here. Could be the owners are using the legitimate excuse of being tied up in CA just so they don’t alienate WA/OR for future contracts. The aviation safety guy was thrown in, I think, for good measure just to bolster KOIN’s liberal-sympathizing reportage. What it all boils down to is the guv and the state aren’t doing enough and everyone knows it.
…oh, and PDX is probably less than 20 mins by air from the complex they are fighting in the Gorge. It is a straight shot from the airport (for refills) to the fire.
@Geoff the Aardvark — I just went around again and wiped the ash layer off sills, etc. The rain is helping to clear out the smoke on the west side. I hope you’re getting some relief, too. It’s always worse east of the mountains. Good luck.
My policy would be very simple:
If it’s CA, OR, or WA, let it burn.
Well, once it burns, you don’t have to worry about it for decades.
So, if you really want to hug trees, you’re gonna have to go somewhere else.
In Oregon the environmentalist were able to get the graveled logging roads torn out and brought back to a natural state, there by not letting any fire trucks get up there. The smart people in charge, or not so much.
Nobody will get it until there’s a modern day ‘Peshtigo Fire.’ Yeah…the one that doesn’t get mentioned like the pussy one in Chicago.
Why we don’t have an air force of water-dropping planes in these areas for emergencies is ridiculous.
Why areas known to have MASSIVE snow falls aren’t equipped with heavy-duty machines that can deploy across state lines, is beyond my understanding.
We are so slow when it comes to emergency disasters that happen every year, not every 4 years.
The water melons have a greater hate of profits than a love of the environment.
I’m impressed with FireIce.
Every word of this article is the truth. The Chetco bar fire in southern Oregon has burned over 190,000 acres. That’s 300 square miles. It was allowed to burn when it started in late June, in a wilderness area when one plane load of retardant could have stopped it. By order of an incompetent Forest Ranger. Lawsuits are the only way to stop this insanity.