Comments on: Five Area Fires Contribute to Flathead Valley Smoke
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By CJ on 08-19-08
Seems rather STUPID to me to allow these fires to burn in this weather and when we KNOW that storms are coming that could cause many many more.
But this is typical of our “protective” agencies. Let’s all sit around and wait until there are 100 or 200 fires burning to try to stop it…real smart guys!
By Red on 08-19-08
No, it’s not those fires that are leaving the smoke in the valley, by all appearances. See http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/resources/2008231/id-mt-000/crefl2_A2008231202604-2008231203458_250m_id-mt-000_143.jpg - it looks to be blowing up from fires south of here.
By firewatcher on 08-19-08
CJ,
You’ve reduced a very complex situation to a very simplistic formula. The fire agencies have been struggling for years to come up with a fire policy that balances human needs and desires with the health of our western forests (and, yes, healthy forests need fire like they need rain). Not to mention balance their limited resources with fire suppression priorities. There are 73 fires burning in the West as I type. Would you prioritize a 100-acre fire burning in the remote reaches of the BOB? Would you be willing to pay the exorbitant fuel costs to run aircraft all day to fight it? Risk lives dropping smokejumpers all over the backcountry?
And our fire agencies have not been “sitting around.“ They’ve been busting their asses since spring trying to protect homes in California and Oregon.
By CJ on 08-20-08
I have read all about the fires in the west and I still say that our LITTLE 10 and 100 ACRE fires should be put out before they reach the level of the California fires. Our people should be putting out our fires. It doesn’t take 100 people on the line to put out a 10 acre or a one acre fire before it becomes the raging fire of the likes of 2003 which burned down thousands of acres in Glacier!
I am not suggesting that we pull out of Idaho and Ca but the all the smoke in our valley is NOT coming from there. We have our own fires to put out also before they end up like Idaho and California. And I don’t believe it is necessary to drop anything other than fire retardent or water on these small fires. I have seen a number of helicopters already doing that somewhere.
There are any number of ways to maintain the ecology of the forests but I do not believe burning thousands of acres is the answer. But then what do I know, I am just an old lady that has watched california fires up close and personal and in Oregon and now in Montana. If we weren’t logging at the same time we are burning maybe it would make sense. But we are and since trees are absolutely necessary to our worlds survival, I believe we need to have better “forest management”! Why not try a “simplistic formula” for a change. Who knows it might work.