Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.158] on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 01:44:34 :
In Reply to: Re: OT Fires posted by Brent [204.8.225.238] on Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 19:16:12 :
I didn't think it would bet real bad, but it's starting to be. A lot of it, though, is that people just don't remember what a "normal" bad fire year is like -- the Tilamook Burn, the Yacolt Burn, the time in the '30s when the whole Pasayten burned, the Evergreen Mountain fire (1967?) which was the last big fire on the wet side of the state. And of course the "big blowup" in 1910. Much of what's burning now would have just been left to burn in the old days. Indians, pioneers, and even railroad land clearing crews set fires. Wagon Train pioneers would casually mention that some mountain or prairie was on fire the way they'd mention the weather. This year things started drying out in June, which is early, but in 1910 there wasn't a drop of rain from March on.
It's not that the fire weather is getting worse. It's that we have a lot more valuable stuff in the way of fires nowadays, and every year that we succeed in suppressing the fires means more fuel for next year. In 20 years we've gone from something like 15% to 65% of the USFS budget going towards fire fighting.
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