The Washington Times reports:
“Until federal bureaucrats and environmentalists came up with the excuse of climate change, it was widely recognized that this was a forest-management problem dating back to the hellacious Yellowstone fires of the late 1980s,” said Sean Paige, a former Competitive Enterprise Institute fellow who now runs the website Monkeywrenching America. “Climate change is a convenient excuse to focus attention away from man-made causes.”
“…hellacious Yellowstone fires of the late 1980s….” Uh, Washington Times writer, study some history, PLEASE! Those fires were FAMOUS only because of the GREAT PRESS they got because of a location recognized by millions, and the fact a lot of tourists got chased out of the Park and inconvenienced, and the potential threat to Old Faithful Lodge and others.
But NOT because they were HELLACIOUS! Remember, it’s a National Park and they are SUPPOSED to let Mother Nature have her way! NPS only fought the fires (beyond protecting the buildings) because of a really strong public-outcry when they didn’t. That just leaves even-more fuel for next time — for the eventually-to-come BIGGER ONE YET!
You want hellacious? How about the two major forest-firestorms of the ’30s in north-central Idaho, over into Montana, driven by high-winds from the west? Hundreds of square miles burned in VERY short-order. To learn a bit about those, stop at the historic Lochsa Ranger Station on US 12, and learn how they did it in the good old days — all on mules and horses, with shovels and axes!
Those Rangers and their Forest Work Crew, after wetting-down the shingle-roofs of the buildings as long as they could, all retreated to stand in the Lochsa River while the embers rained-down on them, while that firestorm blew over them! And imagine the smoke from the upwind fire, too!
And BTW at Yellowstone I drove right by burning-area and trees on the south way out just before it was closed-up tight. By our ‘western’ standards that was “just” a pretty-normal run-of-the-mill forest-fire (that albeit got HEAVY press coverage!). And Yellowstone has a history of several prior ones captured in tree growth patterns as evidence. This was just the first one in modern times with technology to “see it as it happens in living color.” See the National Geographic article, on I believe the 10th anniversary of that fire. Or maybe it was just a year or two later, showing the NATURAL rebirth that occurs pretty quickly. Probably more than one article–they did a great job on explaining it all!
And here’s a thought: That modern ability to “see it as it happens in living color” seems to make people believe these and like-events are ‘unique, largest, and only-recently-occurring’. HA! Just like CO2 levels, and Global Temperature, just go back in history a little bit for TRUE perspective……
Amen mossrock. and thumbs down to “Sean Paige” for assuming there are any significant “man-made causes”. Trust me, there’s” gonna” be a slew of blaming on global warming stuff out there soon. It’s inevitable!
The current Yarnell Hill Fire, which has burned at least fifteen square miles is the result of a lightning strike. And ot least the cost of the lives of ninteen fire fighters.
The chaparral and other vegitatiom had not burned in over forty years and is tinder dry.
The Arizona deserts summer rainy “monsoon” season is set to brgin any day. But the reluctance of forest management. officials to do prescribed controlled burns to thin the undergrowth has allowed these fires to gain strength and run wild quickly, especially if there are winds. Forest managers are now beginning to see the value of these burns.