California’s Dixie Fire Burns Clear
Across a Mountain Range

In Salt Lake City, hundreds of miles away, that fire is causing the very worst air quality on earth! Had President Trump had his 2nd term he could have helped CA begin scientific forest management. Like we had before the "greenies" and their Do Not Touch idiocy took over.

Our southern Colorado fire a couple of years ago spanned two ranges of mountains before they finally stopped it. Good luck for those in front of the fire.

Huge swaths of my beloved Lassen National Park have now been destroyed! Gone....all gone. Greenville was a favorite spot of mine, as well. So, so sickening. We screamed for many decades to clear those forests....mostly fell on deaf ears, of course.

Democrats surely deplore the racial implications of "Dixie" Fire. I demand that it be renamed.

So Climate Change can climb mountains now? We better send that big check to Europe today before it reaches the mountains in the East. You know, like the Aztecs cut out human hearts to keep the gods from visiting harm on them? It makes the same amount of sense.

Not clearing forests is standard operating procedure for the forest service. Remember the fire in Yellowstone that almost burned the Old Faithful Lodge. The lack of clearing forests was the main reason that fire got so big. Apparently no lessons were learned or rules changed.

#3, don't worry, it isn't "gone" and it isn't "destroyed", other than the buildings. If you mean the human constructions, you are right, if you mean the natural places....not really destroyed, just 'reset'. But it won't be pretty again for a while. In 1988 fires ravaged Yellowstone Park, a place we have hiked and toured almost every year since the early 70s. It was sad, and there were ugly swaths of burned forest for a while. The important thing is that they saved the historic old log buildings around Old Faithful, just barely. We have watched the process of the forest regrowth with interest. In the ensuing years, the forest vigorously regrew. In some areas the lodgepole pines have replanted themselves so densely that you literally cannot walk into the forest, the trunks are on 10-12 inch spacing. The green of new trees was intense within 5 years, with a few burnt trees protruding higher. Over time, the burnt trees have fallen, and now are fewer, with a carpet of beautiful green trees covering the mountains again. For the largest trees, even after 30+ years, they aren't full sized, but the forests look pretty good again, but there are still signs of the fire to be found. Near our vacation home in the mountains of Colorado, we have been watching the forests regrow after a large fire in 2018. Still lots of standing burnt trees, but the forest floor is green and there are many places with dense stands of aspens about 3-5 feet high, some smaller pines, now leaping up with the sunlight reaching the ground. Still not as pretty as it was, but it is coming back and will be beautiful again one day. Forest fires are a normal part of the life cycle of a forest. Either cut the forest and regrow it, or it will eventually burn and regrow. Stewardship and close management can keep it longer, but it takes a lot of work. A good friend in Florida is a botanist, has worked in that field for 40 years. We often visit various 'plant communities' in Florida, and he has walked me through a planned burn area a couple of weeks after the fire, and explained and showed how the various plant species reacted to and dealt with the fire. He has warned me that certain portions of Ocala National Forest are seriously over age and will be burning soon enough, and it can only be delayed, not stopped, they have been let go too long. I learned from my forest ecologist outdoorsman friend to recognize that fire has a place in the forest, even though at times it creates despair, and real destruction of human construction. The problem is managing forests and fires. In a lot of Florida, they are now doing controlled burns to keep the forest healthy, rather than preventing all fires until the fires are more destructive. I am not sure if this same approach is workable in California, but it seems likely that it is possible, but wasn't done. Don't despair, the forest will regrow, but it is ugly now and it does take time. The life cycle of a forest runs on a 'longer than human' timescale, which can be frustrating, for sure.