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High winds, hot temps, low humidity, and stupidity don't mix

nightsky

Lover of Mountains
Proof:

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The view from the empty lot by my place. That mountain is a protected wilderness area, and my second favorite hike of all time. I grew up in the neighborhoods below it, and lived in its shadow growing up. In the first pic, you can see the peak itself above the smoke. I love that mountain, and have a very intimate knowledge of it. As of now, the winds are blowing strongly to the north, fanning those flames right towards a forest hundreds of acres in size that's just beautiful. The trail that accesses the peak is literally right in the flames - so much that hike I had planned next week!

Below that trail is a popular running trail, where they think the fire started. Neighborhoods are being evacuated. I hope they castrate who ever caused this!

Here's a picture I took up on the mountain itself looking at the peak. I hope they put it out before this wilderness is all burned:

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Like what happened in Yellowstone all those years ago. My drama teacher was there during the fire with a group of kids. He got stuck because the car wouldn't start.
 
you do realize forest fires are an important and vital part of the ecosystem..........had a prairie fire eat up a good chunk of acreage in March......in August the land that burned was some of the best looking grazing land in the area this summer.......fire is important.......
 
I'm with rattler on this. Just hope that there wasn't a lot of fuel around to cause it to burn so hot it sterilizes the soil.
 
I know all about the benefits of fires - but the price is now it will be ugly as sin for years to come, not to mention there will be mudslides and flooding. Anytime these mountains get burned, it erodes like mad as they are so steep. My favorite mountain playground is now a wastleand, 1100 acres burned so far, but they will have it out soon at least.
 
you do realize forest fires are an important and vital part of the ecosystem..........had a prairie fire eat up a good chunk of acreage in March......in August the land that burned was some of the best looking grazing land in the area this summer.......fire is important.......

Yeah, the whole reason California burned so much was due to overzealous forest protection. Sometimes you just gotta leave nature alone.
 
Fires followed by big-time erosion are the natural order of things out there and it worked fine until people laid out property lines, built stuff and demanded that the land not change anymore. The key is to prevent building in such areas. Once houses go in, government is committed to fire suppression and, as everyone who pays attention knows, you get big, destructive fires instead of frequent little ones. It's like rivers and beaches. They want to move and people with an ownership stake in land try to prevent them from moving. It takes a little while longer, but they'll move eventually, only suddenly instead of gradually and it's catastrophic when it happens.
 
Yeah, the whole reason California burned so much was due to overzealous forest protection. Sometimes you just gotta leave nature alone.

Gotta protect that ruddy-looking chaparral! Forest fires are much less of a problem than those chaparral-laden areas that accumulate fuel. Ever wonder why Mexico doesn't have a huge problem with their chaparral land? They let the suckers burn. They have fires as often as we do, but a much smaller magnitude.

And then every year Californians are surprised (or at least the celebs and the other clueless folks they put in the news)- Must be those darn Santa Anna winds! :eyeroll:

I know all about the benefits of fires - but the price is now it will be ugly as sin for years to come, not to mention there will be mudslides and flooding. Anytime these mountains get burned, it erodes like mad as they are so steep. My favorite mountain playground is now a wastleand, 1100 acres burned so far, but they will have it out soon at least.

I see what you're saying. Sure natural order, etc, etc, etc, but it sure sucks when one of your favorite places is destroyed. I've seen a lot of areas around me go up in flames this year. Had a few scares close to home, too. I'll always remember the text I got from one of my friends downwind from a fire one morning

"Is it snowing outside, or am I still asleep?"
 
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