And Just Like that Fire Season has Arrived: Clean the Floor!
Has something changed?
Spring was late this year, really late. And with that being said, we thought (mistakingly obviously) there was perhaps a chance we might have escaped the fire season. Apparently, that isn’t the case. In April and May and even well into June and even the first of July, we had a ton of snowfall up high on The Big Mountain and Glacier Park. And yes, I know it’s called ‘Whitefish Mountain Resort,’ but the mountain is still entitled ‘Big Mountain,’ so I’m going with that. And with all of this upper snowfall came the flooding down below in the valley and the greenest summer we’ve experienced in years here in Northwest MT.
‘Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park only opened on July 13th this year which clues you into how much snow they received up there this year. So with snow in the mountains and a high amount of especially in June and yet some in July rainfall, how are we getting all these fires?
Well, here are a few theories.
Because we endured abnormal amounts of rain, it caused the vegetation to grow more quickly than normal. So coupled with the fast growth and a very hot and DRY last couple of weeks that can spell disaster (apparently) for forest fire potential and today was that day. Montana Daily Gazette wrote about multiple breakout fires on the west side of Flathead Lake today; in fact, you can read about them by clicking here. Longer vegetation coupled with dry spells equals more fires, and all in one day at that.
The other theory (which isn’t a theory at all but the actual truth) is the fact that the ‘greenies,’, meaning environmentalists, don’t want anyone going into the forest to clean up the debris which lays waste and is highly combustible. Local Northwest Montana loggers are so very frustrated about this and outrageously irritated and are speaking up. One logger remarked, “Yup, that’s exactly what happens. We aren’t allowed to go in and clean up, so now we’re stuck with all these bad fires. It’s just so stupid.”
The point of this article is we are getting fires; we’ve had fires in the past, but we never used to get fires before about five years ago because the loggers were allowed to go in and clean up the forest floor!