Giant forest fires roam across northern Alberta

Strange May blazes burn a third of Slave Lake, Alberta, and threaten to cook the tar sands area-

It’s only mid-May, and it still struggles to get much above 60 degrees here in Eastern Idaho, but forest fires are torching northern Alberta, not all that far from the Arctic Circle. A third of the town of 7000 at Slave Lake burned.  In the general area, many of the giant tar sand pits have been evacuated.  This is near Ft. McMurray.  Temperatures have been in the high 70s and 80s.

Hundreds of homes now just smouldering rubble.  Premier, mayor shaken by scope of devastation in Slave Lake. Edmonton Journal. By Mariam Ibrahim, Ryan Cormier and Ben Gelinas

Other fires continue to burn across northern Alberta.   By Ryan Cormier, Edmonton Journal.

Raging fires stop oil and gas operations.  Hundreds evacuated from facilities.  By Dina O’Meara, Calgary Herald

Federal firefighting promotes building in the wildland interface

So then, maybe it should stop?

Economist Ray Rasker spoke the obvious at University of Montana’s Conservation and Climate Change lecture series. He also talked a little politics. If there is no guarantee of the feeds throwing money to the wind to save houses along the national forest boundaries the counties might be a lot less willing to grant building permits there because the costs would fall on them.

Speaker: Rethink who pays costs of fighting fires to protect homes in woods. By Rob Chaney. Missoulian.

It would be nice to see this building reduced because of its impact on water quality, scenery, wildlife habitat. A lot of the nasty “remove or shot the deer, elk, bears, cougars, wolves” complaints come from people who live in the woods and their pooch gets got or their shrubbery eaten.

Natural restoration advances rapidly in the big Castle Rock burn near Ketchum/Hailey, Idaho

The 50,000 acre fire was 3 years ago-

The Idaho Mountain Express has an article detailing the regrowth in the big burn next to Ketchum and Hailey, Idaho. This is a very popular recreation area, so its restoration is noticeable to a lot of people. Similar articles could be written about several million more acres of burns in central Idaho — burns of the last decade.

The Idaho places where restoration is not going well are the millions of acres of rangelands (more properly sagebrush steppe) where cheatgrass has fueled vast fires, destroying native grasses, forbs and shrubs, creating more of itself for future fires. This year about 3/4 million acres of Idaho rangeland has burned.

Related. Utah has mildest wildfire season in a decade. By jason bergreen. The Salt Lake Tribune

More related. Rain, snow and lower temperatures help tame central Idaho wildfire. Idaho Statesman.

Numerous forest fires breaking out in northern rockies

Much delayed forest fire season now upon us-

Although there have been a few large range fires, such as the 110,000 acre Jefferson fire on the Arco Desert (INL) in Eastern Idaho, now forest fires are quickly emerging in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, etc.

Wildfire breaks out in Packer Meadows, atop Lolo Pass. Missoulian.

Fire in Bob Marshall Wilderness now burning 1,200 acres. Missoulian.

Yellowstone Park: Beach Fire continues in the Bridge Bay area. Jackson Hole Daily

Oregon: 2,000 lightning strikes spark about 30 fires. Bend Bulletin

East Idaho: Firefighters close in on controlling Blacktail wildfire. Idaho State Journal

Wyoming: Lightning sparks multiple fires in Bridger-Teton. Star Valley Independent

Here is the master source for national forest fire information.

What’s Killing the Great Forests of the American West?

Worse, die-offs are not limited to North America-

Next summer will probably be a pretty bad forest fire season in the Pacific Northwest due to a dry winter, and so many of the forests are dead.  This is not a local problem, however, as Jim Robbins discusses in the feature article below.

What’s Killing the Great Forests of the American West? “Across western North America, huge tracts of forest are dying off at an extraordinary rate, mostly because of outbreaks of insects. Scientists are now seeing such forest die-offs around the world and are linking them to changes in climate.” By Jim Robbins. Yale Environment 360.

As for myself, I have been following the politics of forest fires since 1980 when Idaho had its first large forest fire in a generation or so. In the 30 years, I have learned that forest (and range fires too) will always be used for political purposes to further the agenda of the timber and grazing industries.

Their lobbyists know that most people don’t know that the pine beetle kill covers the entire West. They know the people don’t know that logging an area has no effect at all in stopping the spread of the beetle. They know that the public doesn’t know that dead forests are probably less flammable than green, but dry (droughty) forests.

So it is easy to predict there will be an effort to blame conservationists for the forest fires.  They have been doing it for 30 years, and they will do it next summer.  The news media should be prepared for this. I can also confidently predict most of the media won’t be.

Summary: It was a very modest fire season in Idaho

2009 third-smallest fire season since 1970. By Todd Adams. The Challis Messenger.

Breathtaking and misleading fire story in the Missoulian

“Red and dead” forests make extreme fires; but most bug-killed forests are not in this stage-

Beetle-ravaged trees change wildfire behavior in western Montana. By Rob Chaney the Missoulian

Beetles are changing the fire regime in Western Montana. Unfortunately, this story did not get to the key until the end – – “Dead trees will lose those red needles within three to five years. The bare-branch trees tend to be less burnable than either green live trees or red dead ones.” . . . Rob Chaney

These needles are so flammable that they will burn when dripping wet and a cold temperature! In fact, most just killed, and, therefore red lodgepole pine, the most common beetle killed tree, are red for just one year. Then the needles drop. As a result, most dead trees present less of a fire danger rather than more. There are exceptions, such as piles of windthrown, jackstrawed dead timber.

The story also failed to mention that this is not a problem limited to Western Montana. The great die-off extends from the Yukon to New Mexico, making local efforts to deal with the problem with salvage logging or spraying of no use.

I’d mention global warming but all the tea partiers will probably jump down my throat. It’s really too late to do much. The pine forests are pretty much all going to die.

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Related. Weather wipes out wildfires in Montana. Great Falls Tribune.

Bearpaw Bay fire in Grand Teton expected to have plenty wildlife benefits

Although it was plenty smoky, end of the fire season finds the Park’s largest fire of the year beneficial-

As snow suddenly replaces warm late September, the fires in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and nearby are dying quickly. The Jackson Hole News and Guide reports the the 2800 acre lightning caused fire west of Jackson Lake (Bearpaw Bay fire) cooked things just right for good eating by wildlife next year and later.

Story by Cory Hatch. Light hand on the land: Bearpaw Bay firefighters use minimal tactics to contain fire in Grand Teton National Park.

A New West thanksgiving column. Giving thanks for burned forests.

Burns on private industrial forest lands versus multiple use national forest land-

Giving Thanks for Burned Forests. By Matthew Koehler. Guest opinion in New West.

If you want to see a real “moonscape,” check out burned over industrial forest lands that were already clearcut.

2008 wildfire season in Idaho nothing compared to 2007

Idaho’s forests granted a quiet wildfire season-

More than 2-million acres burned in Idaho in 2007. Less than a hundred thousand burned this year.

Story in the Idaho Mountain Express. Just 98,894 acres have burned across the state this year. By Jason Kauffman. Express Staff Writer.

Montana and Wyoming fires fewer and milder so far this summer

Montana and Wyoming fires fewer and milder so far this summer. Billings Gazette. AP.

You can add most of the Western states to this list, except for California.

Are the ways forest fires are fought and prevented wise?

As summer advances, debate over the handling of forest fires, is one again on the front burner.

Are the ways forest fires are being fought and prevent “firewise?” By Heath Druzin and Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman. “We spend billions attacking almost every wildfire, but scientists say that’s bad for the forest, can put firefighters in unnecessary danger and doesn’t protect communities as well- or as cheaply – as we now know how to do.”

Reporters Druzin and Barker cite USDA’s inspector general who concludes that too many Americans who live to areas prone to forest fires do not join with their neighbors and/or accept personal responsibility to construct and landscape their homes in a way to reduce the danger of being burned in a wildfire. This is due in considerable measure to the federal effort to put out every fire and throw billions into wildfire suppression with no constraints.

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I believe their has been a decline in personal responsibility, but then I might be criticized as sounding cranky.

Note: please read the sidebar on rangefires. They are quite different the forest fires, and there are far too many of them. The result and the cause is mostly the spread of the flammable exotic cheatgrass.

George Wuerthner Gets it Right on Fire, Ecosystems, Management

This analysis is from Forest Policy – Forest Practice, an interesting blog on forest policy written by a number of academics and “practitioners.”

George Wuerthner Gets it Right on Fire, Ecosystems, Management. By Daver Iverson.

This is a summary of George Wuerthner’s recent letter to Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden who believes that legislation putting more effort into forest thinning is going to have a substantial effect on the growing size and length of the wildfire season in the West.

Scientists look for answers to Utah forests’ beetle epidemic

Scientists look for answers to state forests’ beetle epidemic. By Judy Fahys. The Salt Lake Tribune.

This is not unique to Utah. Various and vast death of conifers is happening all over the Rocky Mountains as well as British Columbia and Alberta. The cause of the beetle pandemic is not local and there is no solution except a change to colder winters.

These forests burn more almost every summer and this will continue until there is a change in the vast regions. The people I talk don’t debate that this is going to happen, the question is what will replace the dying and dead forests?

Professor: Fires in West will worsen

WASHINGTON — A Montana expert testified Thursday that climate change will increase and intensify wildfires, while members of Congress and U.S. Forest Service officials grappled with how to pay for the increased costs of fire suppression

Story: Professor: Fires in West will worsen. By Noelle Straub. Casper Star-Tribune Washington bureau.

This should be obvious, but it isn’t.

Some people will want to argue that we can’t say because global warming isn’t real. Regardless, the critical fact is this: conifers, especially pine, are already dead and are dying at unprecedented rates in the northern Rockies, B.C. and Alberta.

They are burning, and they are going to burn every summer that is not unusually wet. Thinning them is too late now, and often useless anyway, even if there was enough money.

This means that almost every summer is going to be awful smoky in Montana and other places that are downwind of large forest areas.

My advice to anyone with property in these areas is to unload it now before potential buyers figure this out. Move to a cleaner place like a city far from the forests.

This will not go down well, and one of those who will have to adjust to this new reality is Plum Creek Timber, which is trying to become mostly a real estate company that will sell land in “the fire plain.” Timber Giant Takes a Hit: Plum Creek’s Risky Businesses. By Myers Reece, Flathead Beacon (republished in New West).

More Nevada gold mines spew more toxic mercury than they reported

More Nevada gold mines spew more toxic mercury than they reported. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.

Three years ago hardly anyone thought of this, but the fact is southern Idaho waters and part of Utah too is being poisoned by the emissions from the rapidly growing number of open pit gold mines in Nevada.

Recent studies have also shown that forest and range fires emit a lot of highly toxic mercury. It isn’t a natural component of vegetation, but combustion of deposits from industrial sources on the grass and trees. I wonder how much Nevada mercury was spread around the United States from the Nevada and Idaho range and forest fires this last summer?

Tallying Up the 2007 Fire Season in Montana

New West has an article summarizing the severe wildfire season (long season) in Montana this year.

Of course, people should note the Idaho had the worst and the longest of any state.

Tallying Up the 2007 Fire Season in Montana. By Dave Loos.

“60 Minutes” to feature Idaho, all those forest fires and global warming

Rocky Barker wrote about this, this morning. It will be on TV this coming Sunday.

“60 Minutes” report on fires and global warming highlights Idaho. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.