Western Wildfires via NASA

Don McDowell · Post by **Don McDowell** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:53 am

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires ... 20702.html

Post by **Hobie** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:57 pm

Thanks for sharing... it is interesting.

Don McDowell · Post by **Don McDowell** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:04 pm

What I found really fasinating from those was the pattern of the smoke drift.
Also it was amazing as to how little green was to be seen across the rmw and highplains

Buck Elliott · Post by **Buck Elliott** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:55 pm

It shows we have so very little snowpack left, even in the "high-up" hills.. The Big Horn Basin is the same color, on the ground, as it looks to be from the orbiter..

So much of our forests is either dead or dying from beetle infestation, but the Greenies seem to like it that way, as they will not allow selective cutting or spraying for the little pests..

Clear-cutting and reseeding may be the only action that can save the forest now.. A wild fire on the Shoshone or Bridger-Teton would burn up most of the thin organic soil that underlies millions of acres of timberland..

Which brings us to another point: the Enviro-Nazis cannot abide the notion that anyone should stand to profit from the harvesting and sale of "our" natural resources.. (And yet so many of them proudly dwell in large log homes, and would live in tents on the forest, if only they could... Maybe then, their beloved bears and wolves would befriend them, and invite them over for supper... As the main course.....)

Don McDowell · Post by **Don McDowell** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:07 pm

Buck it's a great sadness to travel around our great state and see all the beetle kill, and to see all of the sawmills that used to provide jobs and needed lumber that are just vacant acreages....
To many people were apparently offended by folks harvesting timber from their "public" lands... Now those same folks will be screaming because all their trees are burnt stumps in a washed out desert....
Looking like that Squirrel Creek fire at Fox Park has run across Sheep Mtn and is heading down to the flats, they've evac"ed everything between 130 and 230 west of Harmony lane.

Don McDowell · Post by **Don McDowell** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:11 pm

Now they've evacuated the town of Osage west of New Castle... wonder how much won't be burned by the time snowfalls (hopefully) this fall....

ollogger · Post by **ollogger** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:20 pm

Don & Buck Ill agree !00% with ya on the tree huggers, Im not gonna add to it cuzzzz I may get in trouble

ollogger

Don McDowell · Post by **Don McDowell** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:28 pm

It's not always treehuggers either. I always was puzzled by the number of elk "hunters" that would arque against a timber sale. Apparently they thought elk only ate pinecones?

Never mind how they had more trouble finding fewer elk as the timber grew over meadows and clearings.....

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:56 pm

ollogger wrote:Don & Buck Ill agree !00% with ya on the tree huggers, Im not gonna add to it cuzzzz I may get in trouble.

Yep.

1894c · Post by **1894c** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 1:15 am

Buck Elliott wrote:
Maybe then, their beloved bears and wolves would befriend them, and invite them over for supper... As the main course....

not sure any bear or wolf would actually look at the "greenies" as a suitable meal...'cause from what i can see their already full of organic soil supplement... :)

Gobblerforge · Post by **Gobblerforge** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:51 am

The day rides at Sturgis will no doubt include fire watching this year. It looks like smoke goes right over the Black Hills area.
Gobbler

bigbore442001 · Post by **bigbore442001** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 6:09 am

It is odd in regards to forest management. We have a similar problem here in Massachusetts with many of the state forests and parks that have matured over the past century. Recently the governor has allowed the cutting of some state forests and that caused a bit of a stir with some environmental people. To me, it was the best thing going. Now the openings are filling up with secondary growth and providing browse for deer and other game.

olyinaz · Post by **olyinaz** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 12:55 am

It's been amazing to fly past it all these past weeks. At night you can see 'em stretching for hundreds of miles and it just seems like there's no part of the West that wasn't studded with them.

This is a terrible pic, but honestly it was nearly dark and I'm stunned that the iPhone captured even this. This fire line was burning in the mountains just south of Salt Lake City this past week, but you can see fires studding the entire landscape as far as the eye can see, and at 38,000 feet that's for hundreds of miles.

In all my years I've never seen so many fires burning at the same time.

Oly

Don McDowell · Post by **Don McDowell** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:42 am

Yesterday the smoke from that Arapaho fire layed in our basin here so thick that visibility was about 1/4 mile.... Hacking and wheezing, and I'm thinking so much for quitting the Marlboros 25 years ago....

Leverluver · Post by **Leverluver** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 2:12 pm

Wednesdy morning coming home from work, it was a choker here in Glenrock too with the same 1/4m vis. Now it really doesn't matter which way the wind is blowing, the smoke can come in from any direction.

Birdman · Post by **Birdman** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:00 pm

Mighty sad to see. It is amazing technology though.

Western Wildfires via NASA

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