California is Burning (Again)

Everyone seems surprised by the scale of this year's fire season. I'm not. Didn't you guys notice all the fucking trees were dying? Why did millions of acres burn up in BC this year? Because entire pine forests are mostly standing dead thanks to the beetles. Have you ever spent time up at Togwotee Pass? Been up there lately? Do yourself a favor and go up to Togwotee Pass and see what happened. You'll see a preview for what is going to occur in the Tetons. Looks like about 70-80% of the trees on the south side of the pass are now standing dead. Soon, all those trees will be dead. It happened so fast the trees still have all their branches intact, Just a massive load of kindling and no possible human effort can stop a mountainside of tinder dry standing deads from blowing up once it ignites. Let it all burn and lets start over. There is nothing we can do to put the toothpaste back into this tube. We don't get a mulligan here folks, no do-overs. Let the loggers salvage what they can because the triple whammy of warming, beetles and 100 years of misguided fire suppression means we are totally fucked and there's nothing to do about it but let it burn. Fire is cleansing. That's how nature recycles sick forests. Get over it.

Benny, it's going to happen in the east so don't be so smug. The beetles are going to migrate east along the northern jack pine forest and then around and down past the great lakes. Welcome to the party.

We don't need no water let that mother fucker burn....

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Originally Posted by neckdeep

Everyone seems surprised by the scale of this year's fire season. I'm not. Didn't you guys notice all the fucking trees were dying? Why did millions of acres burn up in BC this year? Because entire pine forests are mostly standing dead thanks to the beetles. Have you ever spent time up at Togwotee Pass? Been up there lately? Do yourself a favor and go up to Togwotee Pass and see what happened. You'll see a preview for what is going to occur in the Tetons. Looks like about 70-80% of the trees on the south side of the pass are now standing dead. Soon, all those trees will be dead. It happened so fast the trees still have all their branches intact, Just a massive load of kindling and no possible human effort can stop a mountainside of tinder dry standing deads from blowing up once it ignites. Let it all burn and lets start over. There is nothing we can do to put the toothpaste back into this tube. We don't get a mulligan here folks, no do-overs. Let the loggers salvage what they can because the triple whammy of warming, beetles and 100 years of misguided fire suppression means we are totally fucked and there's nothing to do about it but let it burn. Fire is cleansing. That's how nature recycles sick forests. Get over it.

Benny, it's going to happen in the east so don't be so smug. The beetles are going to migrate east along the northern jack pine forest and then around and down past the great lakes. Welcome to the party.

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Let them big tits burn!

While the beetle will likely make its way east, forests are much more fragmented there, and the steady year-round precipitation (many parts of New England average 45-50 inches of precip per year, and it's pretty evenly distributed throughout the year, unlike the west) will help to minimize the fire risk. Teton forests burning to the ground might be a blessing in disguise and bump down the ridiculous property values in the area.

errrr, once the needles are gone, that standing dead isn't really gonna carry fire as well til it's.... no longer standing dead.

as far as salvaging that stuff up by Togwotee..... there's LIVE timber sales up there that don't get any bids. there's scant chance anyone's gonna want to log the dead stuff.

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Originally Posted by Lone Star

errrr, once the needles are gone, that standing dead isn't really gonna carry fire as well til it's.... no longer standing dead.

as far as salvaging that stuff up by Togwotee..... there's LIVE timber sales up there that don't get any bids. there's scant chance anyone's gonna want to log the dead stuff.

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Have you been up to Togwotee in the last year? It's changed. There isn't much live timber left to be sold on the south facing slopes; the Brooks Lake basin looks like shit. There was salvage logging going on. The trees still have all their small branches intact, many still have needles. IMHO, the trees have so much light fuels suspended in them that I think they'll carry fire very efficiently. Its just miles and miles of densely packed dead spruce trees. Last season, I visited the fire that burned north of Dubois in 2013 to look for morels. Moonscape. Not a tree left alive inside the perimeter. That fucker burned fast and HOT.

hadn't seen it that recently--- crazy how fast it can change. hopefully something will rip through and clean all that stuff out and then lay down when it hits the perimeter of the handful of other fires in the area that have burned there in the past decade. Gonna be a great place for elks and mushrooms!!

Bark beetles function to recycle forests as well and are only a problem when mixed with human interest. Togwotee is fine. Might eventually open up some lines to ski

Oak Fire 100 acres a few miles from my house....

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Originally Posted by telemike

Oak Fire 100 acres a few miles from my house....

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Caught it:
http://wildfiretoday.com/2015/09/09/...-at-100-acres/

http://www.mymotherlode.com/news/loc...oad-opens.html

50% containment. Good air show.

Pretty good plume on the Tenaya Fire yesterday when we drove through Yose. I'll try to get some photos up after work.

Attachment 169478

Tenaya Fire photo from Fresno Bee.


Article on Oak Fire.

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Lo...acres-scorched


A lot of deer on the move through my area from the fire last two days. I've seen easily more than a hundred moving through, including a group of 30+ last night. Just saw another dozen in the last few minutes.

A lot of deer have a second set of fawns this summer. New babies born recently.

Amador.....

Good observation. I saw a few very young fawns yesterday.

The little buggers are everywhere around here.

Butte Fire not looking good.

Didn't get Tenaya photos up yesterday. Butte fire blew up to 4,000 acres already. Evacuating Mokelumne Hill.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer...Y.kL8bcwq6cP8g

Butte Fire, surprised more people haven't gotten hurt chasing photos/video of fire.
https://twitter.com/kcraBrianHickey/...68105968021504

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Originally Posted by markb

Butte Fire, surprised more people haven't gotten hurt chasing photos/video of fire.
https://twitter.com/kcraBrianHickey/...68105968021504

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Wow. I've seen that guy's coverage of other fires (big one in Lake County earlier this summer comes to mind), but, wow.

Butte Fire not looking good.

View from my buddy's house off Hwy 4 just below Forest Meadows looking across the Mokelumne River canyon.

Attachment 169515

I just read that they ordered 45 type 3 engine strike teams and 26 type I crew strike teams. Plus overhead.

That's ~2000 people.

Yes.

This has big potential. Think Rim Fire. We got away with one on that. Hudge fire but relatively little "loss".

Man. Started yesterday. 4,000 acres by this morning. 14,000 acres by this evening.

EBMUD (my water purveyor) must be shitting a brick with all their infrastructure in that drainage.

Here are a couple of photos from the Tenaya Fire on Tuesday. Was about two minutes too late to get a really good shot of the helicopter dipping right off the road.

https://www.tetongravity.com/images/...__enlarged.jpg

https://www.tetongravity.com/images/...__enlarged.jpg

http://www.mymotherlode.com/news/loc...s-classes.html

^Damn homes, that thing is rolling.

F'ing CAL Fire hasn't put anything about it on Inciweb yet. :cussing:

Amazing how shitty CalFire's reputation remains amongst us Fed folks.

I remember the CCCs giving those guys shit in camp 20 years ago.

Engine puppies....

I gotta say, though, the inmate crews are legit. Those guys get some crazy shit done. I always loved working with inmates. They gave a shit cuz it mattered to them for a lot of reasons. I always fucked off the rule of not fraternizing. They need to be treated like people.

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Originally Posted by telemike

Amazing how shitty CalFire's reputation remains amongst us Fed folks.

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I resemble that remark.

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I gotta say, though, the inmate crews are legit. Those guys get some crazy shit done. I always loved working with inmates. They gave a shit cuz it mattered to them for a lot of reasons. I always fucked off the rule of not fraternizing. They need to be treated like people.

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Totally agree, but cons often asked me for weed back in the day. Yeah...no, I don't want to get on your crew.

Story time: I was a division supe on one of the Yellowstone fires back in '88, and a CDF strike team leader on my division was overseeing a couple of east coast Type 2 crews. One day this kid from out east was bugging the shit out of the CDF guy telling him how badly he wanted to work for him on his crew next season. After listening to the kid babble for a while the CDF guy told him,"Okay, come out to California, rob a liquor store, and I'll see what I can do." The CDF guy was a con crew captain back home. LMAO.