The Truth About The Little Bear Fire

[Quixote1818]

There is a lot of made up crap going around about the Little Bear fire from the right wing. This blog goes into great detail about what really happened and how it got out of control. The forest service did not allow it to burn they jumped on it right away.

http://theweatherinmymind.blogspot.com/2012/06/truth-about-little-bear-fire.html

[duhneece]

1. Do you think that the 4%, 5% cuts in Forest Service funding over the past two years

Is or will have a negative impact, as our fire danger continues to rise?

[Quixote1818]

3. The main problem with forest fires is losing homes. Fire is good for forests.

Forests evolved over hundreds of millions of years with fire. Fire keeps forests healthy and in balance but the problem is with so many homes moving into forests that can't allow for a "let burn" policy other than in places the like the Gila NF here in NM and Yellowstone Nat. Park where there is little population.

Personally I think the negative impacts will be more on home owners and insurance companies than the forests themselves. The forest in high intensity crown fires will look horrible for ten or twenty years but in low and moderate intensity burns the forest recovers and is more healthy in less than a year. Also, Aspen roots are often already in place and huge Aspen groves can begin growing almost immediately where there were crown fires. In the Gila NF less than 20% of the burns were high intensity because they have allowed fires to burn there for 40 years so there wasn't that much fuel. The reason that fire spread to be so huge was because of high winds and because they pretty much allowed it to burn but steering it away from the hand full of houses in the area.

Probably more homes will be burned due to the cut back backs because in National Forests that have a lot of population and towns are not allowed to have a let burn policy for good reason but the cut backs mean it's harder for the FS to have the man power to clean out brush and cut down small trees where the forest is too dense. But keep in mind the SW had a La Nina last winter so forests are extremely dry right now. El Nino is predicted for the coming winter so there probably won't be many fires in the SW next summer unless El Nino fails to develop but even if it does we will probably have more normal precipitation.

Fires help keep the forest healthy but it's sad to see people lose their homes. I think the lesson is to cut down any trees right next to your house and clear out any brush.

Watch the following videos as they give a good summary of why fire is good for forests.

[duhneece]

2. Your blog is interesting

I get caught up in my own false assumtions ...so that I'm amazed to find it in fundamentalist, Texas/cowboy/good-old-boy' Lincoln/Otero county. Glad, tho!

[Quixote1818]

4. It's not my blog but I found it interesting too. nt

[duhneece]

5. Well then, thank you for sharing.

I'm old enough to remember when we knew the words & could all sing along to 'Smokey the Bear, Smokey the Bear...." and we were all trying to prevent forest fires, but now we know more. We did then what we knew; now that we know better, hopefully we can do better. Somewhat controlled fires are better than what we have now is what I'm understanding, I think.