Posted by warbaby on August 08, 2021 at 11:23:58 from (24.247.205.221):
In Reply to: My Take on the Fires posted by JimS on August 08, 2021 at 09:17:54:
Good write up- my Dad was also contracted by the DNR to plow up firebreaks with a massive breaker plow behind his D-6.That thing would open up a 8 foot gash 2 feet deep at its center as fast as you could walk. I do agree with you that there is a lot of combustible brush in the woods, but thats pretty much how forests work. The problem is when humans choose to live in the remaining forested areas, then complain when one of their careless neighbors lights it all on fire and burns everybody out! More and more people in drier and drier timber is not a recipe for long-term success. Perhaps they could rake the forests like they do in Finland...
And yes, there have been incredibly large fires in the past- you mention a few like the Peshtigo Fire (which was eclipsed by the more famous Chicago Fire and the equally large Port Huron, Michigan fire that all happened on the same day in 1871), and the 1918 conflagration in Idaho. Those fires were from a time before a federal agency was created to deal with forest fires (USFS) and relied upon widely scattered fire tower spotters and volunteers to come and fight the fires, many on foot or horseback. Today fires are spotted much sooner (Thanks, infrared satellites and airplanes!) and the technology available today is far superior to those early attempts to get a fire under control. They didnt even have Smoky the Bear yet! Suffice to say, if those fires occurred today, they would have been spotted sooner and dealt with far more effectively with modern technology and may have been extinguished before they gained a foothold. The problem today is more fires over a longer fire season in an increasingly drier, warmer climate. That is true in the American West, the Canadian West, Australia, South America, Russia & Siberia, Africa and all of Europe.
As far as media hype, its true that everybody likes a good fire- big red trucks, smoke, fire, jumpers and low-flying planes dumping retardant all make for some exciting imagery, and during the lengthening fire season it seems to more often-than-not be the lead story, especially after all that sporting in Japan is mercifully over, but if you think sensationalism is a new feature of the media, you should read the scandalous pamphlets, broadsides and newspapers from Colonial Era America!
Now, before we get too far from the original controversy, whats your take on those supposed arsonists wreaking all this havoc?
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Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
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