2021 summer fires

[Hay Dude]

Here’s some pics from yesterday at Rocky Mountain National Park. Miles of forest and entire mountains cooked. What one of the knowledgeable locals told us was that in warmer cycles, the wood boring beetles have more time to breed and when more breed, more trees die from the beetles. This creates more dead, dry trees so when a camper does something stupid, or there’s a lightning strike, the results are more catastrophic

 

[Citydude]

Here’s some pics from yesterday at Rocky Mountain National Park. Miles of forest and entire mountains cooked. What one of the knowledgeable locals told us was that in warmer cycles, the wood boring beetles have more time to breed and when more breed, more trees die from the beetles. This creates more dead, dry trees so when a camper does something stupid, or there’s a lightning strike, the results are more catastrophic


View attachment 707789
View attachment 707790

The pine beetle can't survive a week straight of 20 below F. We haven't seen that in a few years. -40F was a common winter occurrence when I was a kid in the 50's. Haven't seen that in 30 years.

Ponderosa pine on my place fight hard when infected. They form pitch tubes sticking out a couple of inches trying to rid the beetle. They don't have a chance as the beetles swarm to a tree and overpower it.

Usually, they target stressed trees that are fighting for life in an overgrown environment. With that, it's survival of the fittest.

 

[Hay Dude]

The pine beetle can't survive a week straight of 20 below F. We haven't seen that in a few years. -40F was a common winter occurrence when I was a kid in the 50's. Haven't seen that in 30 years.

Ponderosa pine on my place fight hard when infected. They form pitch tubes sticking out a couple of inches trying to rid the beetle. They don't have a chance as the beetles swarm to a tree and overpower it.

Usually, they target stressed trees that are fighting for life in an overgrown environment. With that, it's survival of the fittest.

That’s what I heard, too. This year, there’s so many beetles, the trees can’t fight them off. I got up close to many dead lodge pole pines and they had thousands of holes drilled in the,

 

[Citydude]

That’s what I heard, too. This year, there’s so many beetles, the trees can’t fight them off. I got up close to many dead lodge pole pines and they had thousands of holes drilled in the,

It's nature at it's best. But, there needs to be some form of conservation. Humans need building materials.

 

[ericm979]

They probably happened with more frequency and less intensity. We've been suppressing forest fires for decades; in regions where there isn't much timber harvesting, that amounts to a lot of built up fuel. It also was never as important back then, people didn't have multi million dollar properties at stake.

Gifford Pinchot, 1st head of the USFS declared in 1911 that all fires must be put out. That was in response to a huge set of fires in 1910 that burned 3 million acres. It took a while for the FS to develop equipment and techniques to do that but by the '30s they were making good on it.

Logging by itself does not fix the fuels problem. If you clear cut and burn all the slash, a few years after the new trees are planted they become super flammable like a brush field because they're close together and low to the ground. Normally with a select cut the most valuable trees are the ones taken, but those are the large trees that survive fire the best. What's ideal from a fire standpoint is to remove the undergrowth and small trees but there's little commercial value in that. We're going to have to use practices specifically aimed at fire reduction.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

One practical means of fuel reduction is controlled burning. Sometimes that gets out of control.

Another practical means of fuel reduction is grazing.

Both techniques have vocal opponents.

 

[ranger danger]

1000 goats per 100 acres. Clean up the land, feed the goats, bears and cats all at the same time.

 

[bcp]

Forest service says there are about 30 million acres of forest in Oregon. That's a lot of goats.



Bruce

 

[ranger danger]

Ya but, there delicious with a good BBQ sauce

 

[Jstpssng]

Gifford Pinchot, 1st head of the USFS declared in 1911 that all fires must be put out. That was in response to a huge set of fires in 1910 that burned 3 million acres. It took a while for the FS to develop equipment and techniques to do that but by the '30s they were making good on it.

Logging by itself does not fix the fuels problem. If you clear cut and burn all the slash, a few years after the new trees are planted they become super flammable like a brush field because they're close together and low to the ground. Normally with a select cut the most valuable trees are the ones taken, but those are the large trees that survive fire the best. What's ideal from a fire standpoint is to remove the undergrowth and small trees but there's little commercial value in that. We're going to have to use practices specifically aimed at fire reduction.

That's another difference between the East and West coasts. The primary species on your side of the continent developed to thrive on fire... over here, not so much.