Drought?

[drew03cmc]

Dang! That makes our issues around here sound pretty minor. Hope you all get some rain out there.

Yeah, last weekend, we had storms go by us with torrential rain and what not. In Lawrence, ten miles north of me, they got 2+ inches of rain in about six hours. We had .3 inches of rain all day. That is just the way our luck has rain lately. The hay is about ready to cut the first time, corn is short and beans aren't doing a whole lot. It is going to be a hot, dry summer and we can't really afford to have another one like last year.

[Tim Smith]

The Hewlett fire in Poudre Canyon is hazing up the Front Range in Colorado this morning. Fire fighters are having a hard time containing the blaze because of steep terrain and unusually dry conditions. Second major forest fire so far this spring that has sent smoke into the Denver area.

We've had some rains recently but we're still behind.

[Robert]

We are all in for some water shortages here in Springfield. We will need to rethink the type of grass we plant because there will not be enough water for sprinklers. Uncontroled growth is one of the problems.

[Tim Smith]

The High Park fire, also in Poudre Canyon, has now burned 72 square miles with no real hope of containment in sight. Beetle killed trees on the western edge of the fire constitute 70% of the forest there and could become a serious hazard for firefighters.

The fire has jumped the river at least once and concerns about silt and erosion into the river are high.

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20120613/NEWS/120619945/1077&ParentProfile=1058

[Jerry Rapp]

many experts are saying if normal logging practices could still be deployed that the wild fires would not spread as fast and be easier to contain. Same scenerio that played out in the southern california wildfires a few years ago.

[Tim Smith]

many experts are saying if normal logging practices could still be deployed that the wild fires would not spread as fast and be easier to contain. Same scenerio that played out in the southern california wildfires a few years ago.

True. Once the trees are all cut down the risk of forest fire becomes pretty low...except that fires and disease are most closely associated with clear cuts and "normal logging practices".

http://yeoldeconscio...e.com/art6.html

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Maybe it is Mother Nature's way of controlling the beetles. Just a thought...

[Greasy B]

Last year when I traveled through the Medicine Bow mountains in southern Wyoming it was heart breaking to see the countless square miles of dead forest from the beetles. It's just a matter of time until the whole mountain range burns.

[ozark trout fisher]

These fires are terrible, both the quantity and size of them that are occurring. And don't get me wrong, if I lived out west this would seriously concerning to me.

But that said, all of this isn't without a benefit. Last summer I visited the Trappers Lake area in the Flattops Wilderness of northwest Colorado. That area was absolutely devastated by the Big Fish fire in the summer of 2002. And let me tell you, ten years later, I've never seen an area more absolutely full of life. The deer populations are ridiculous out there now, and almost all of what was a barren wasteland when I visited Trappers the year after the fire is now carpeted in a strikingly beautiful array of wildflowers. Absolutely I think it is more beautiful (and probably more ecologically diverse) now up there than before the fire burned, even though most of the pine and aspen forest is still in the early stages of recovery. There is nothing quite like seeing an area like that come back from total devastation. And yes, despite all the apocolyptic concerns that were flying around then about siltation of the streams where the trout spawn, the fishing in Trappers and other lakes and streams in the area is about as good now as it's ever been.

If it's arson or otherwise man-caused, then of course we're talking about something purely negative. But if we are talking about natural, lightning caused fires, there really is some good that can come out of it.

[Tim Smith]

It's all a question of balance. The soils at the Hayman fire are going to prevent recovery for 1000 years. The current problem is that the fire season is longer with more intense fires. Fire is part of the system but too much and too much of the wrong kind is a problem.