Re: RC: Re: RE: Politics, Fires and Trails

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/29/00 3:06:24 PM Pacific Daylight Time, RDCARRIE writes:

<< One of the biggest fires we've had here in E. Texas this summer was last 
week.  It got a little over 2000 ac. I think - which is big for here (lots of 
roads, rural volunteer fire depts to "jump" on fires, etc. - so they don't 
usually get that big).  It was east of Nacogdoches, TX, in a timber 
company-owned young pine plantation.  Even with thinning, these stands are 
very vulnerable to fire.  >>

Fire can occur in ANY forested area.  The difference, as Bob and others have 
pointed out, is the accumulation of "ladder fuels" or just deadfall in 
general, that cause the fires to get up into the tops of the trees, or to 
burn hotter and more thoroughly.  "Good" fire sweeps through quickly and gets 
the underbrush--but mature trees survive, for the most part.  The sorts of 
fires we are talking about that are occurring in the West right now are much 
hotter and much more damaging--creating their own weather systems, 
sterilizing the soil, "glazing" the earth, etc.  They are also much 
larger--individual fires or complexes encompass tens or even hundreds of 
thousands of acres, and total acreages burned well into the millions.  
Smaller fires (a few thousand acres) are a part of summer life here, and 
certainly drought years are especially tough.  But what is happening this 
year is on a whole different level.

Heidi