Originally Posted by
jamesdak
LOL, if you live in the west and you want to ride you have to ride with the smoke. There really is no option unless we can ever get back to responsible fire management and stop all these huge crazy fires we see now days. Yet another mess created by overzealous environmentalist with too much political clout. We've really tipped over to the stupidity side of the scale as of late with our ability to manage these fire problems.
I totally disagree, and that is coming from a retired forester with 47 years experience. I echo billridesbikes' post.
Do a search for "fire return interval" and it will give you an idea of how 75 years of stomping out every small fire has actually increased the size and intensity of many fires today.
In Ponderosa pine timber type, which is common in eastern Oregon, the fire return interval was about 10-15 years in much of the area. This would reduce the amount of young undergrowth trees, ladder fuels, which made future low intensity fires in the area the norm, while leaving most of the larger trees unharmed.
For timber types west of the cascades the fire return interval was about 200 years. Most of the fires in this type were large and intense because of the tremendous fuel accumulations during that relative long period. Look at the Tillamook Burn history for a good example.
This is just a thumbnail sketch; you can find reams of papers written about this subject.
Contrary to popular opinion, Smokey the Bear was not as much a friend of the forests as he was made out to be. Yes, there are many times when it is necessary to suppress wildfires as quickly as possible. There are other times when thinning and controlled prescribed burns can reduce fuels and get the forests back into a more natural composition. California fires are another matter due to the fuel types.
And yes, Global warming is real!