Adam, I pray that nasty fire reported on the news in Fort Collins is leaving you and yours alone!
Thanks for your concern it means alot. I think I will be fine from this fire. While I am closer to it than many people up here. Between me and the fire is a reseviour and it would have to go around it. So hopefully it will not go around. The weather has not been helping however it is curently is 90 degrees and we have dry winds up to 50 miles an hour. It has only rained once this year. The sad thing is they are saying they will not get this fire out until late fall. Thankfully it seems to be moving west into the national forest and away from houses and people. Almost all the forest up here is beatled killed and been needing to be rejovenated for the last fifteen or more years. Too bad that means fire. Now if it could just stop snowing ash and if the smoke would clear from my neighborhood. It looks like your smoking hogs or deer outside. My wife who has ashma is having a real hard go at it. Who new I would be testing the affects of smoke on pollination attempts but I don’t know how to create a control group.
What I worry about is new conifer seedlings not being able to grow because we haven’t gotten any rain in so long.
Hi Adam,
I too hope /wish the best for you and your community… hope the fires blow far away from y’all, and if need be into uninhabited land (tho I feel badly for those poor lil critters and lovely bushland).
About 10 years ago, I used to live in the Blue Mountains located west of Sydney, where lethal fires have on random occasion wiped out small village communities and towns, depending on the year (depending on lady luck, and other factors like how dry it had been any one season, lack of rainfall, failed backburning strategies etc etc).
There were no fires whilst I lived there, however… not long after I had left that heavenly location, fire did happen … tis heartbreaking to watch.
GOOD LUCK, take care.
[quote=“george varden”]
[(tho I feel badly for those poor lil critters and lovely bushland)./quote]
This fire was way over due. The forest needs to burn sometimes. This forest was in real bad shape. So the critters did not have much to eat anyways. Too bad many animals will have to die for a better future. Too bad houses have to burn and a few people have to also die.
But Fara comment on rain is also a worry. The average rainest months of the year are past us and many of these areas the next water they will get is in winter in the form of snow. So errosion is a real concern especially were you have a foot or less of soil and an inch or less of topsoil.
This fire is the result of global warming. The beatles that are killing this forest in the pass was controlled to an extent by winter temperatures. These colder temperatures naturally keep the beatle population to an equalibrium with the trees where they only build a certain number. In the past they would only really affect sickly trees or drought sticken forest. But even trees that are getting enough water can not fight off these bugs no longer because their is no reduction in the beatle population occuring. I believe that over the next 50 to 60 years we will see coniferious forest like this one will be replaced by decious forest. And not just in the beginning of the forest life that commonly happens after fire but more permently. This I think will be caused by increase pest population and less harsh winter temperatures. Were temperatures are harsh conifers have the advantage but under warmer temperatures decidious trees usually except for a few causes have the advantage. The conifers I think will be forced higher up the slope and the major coniferious forest 100s of miles north of were they are now. I might be wrong but I don’t think I am. It is said to see the changes that have occured in my life time. I remeber glaciers that are no longer in assistance.
God bless all the firefighters. They are going to have one busy year across the western united states. Hell we have firefighters from Cannada fighting this fire and the one in New Mexico because our firefighters are strecthed out with all these fires and several are big ones at that.
The reports on our news sound worse than dire. I hope all are still OK.
Adam,
I pray that the fire turns away from you and your family. It must be a helpless feeling to watch what is happening, and not being able to do much about it other than get ready to evacuate. As Kim mentions, the news we get doesn’t sound too promising for your area. Hopefully the rains will come sooner than later.
Good luck, take care and God bless.
Just got back from the west coast today. Scanning through the forum post titles to see what i want to read first Thursday when I get off of work I noticed this one had new ones since I last read so I decided to read it toady just in case people were worring. The fires in my part of Colorado has gotten way better since I was here a week ago. It is mostly burning national forest lands that don’t have a lot of homes and many of these areas you would have to hike into for a couple days to even get to because they have no access roads. The fire near Colorado Springs (200 miles away about) however has gotten way worse. Hopefully some of the rain that came back with me will also help them out and all the other areas of the west that need it. I hope you can pray and wish these people your best they need it. Thank you all for you thoughts and well wishes.
Thanks, Adam. That’s a relief! I pray that rain has followed you home and it makes vast improvements for you, Fa, and all else involved!
I know I/we are on the other side of the world and our summers are at oppersite ends. We do not hear much of the fire and storms that you people are having. Nothing on our news. I would not have known this was happening apart from posts here. I have Mr Googled to see more info. Some of the country side would be hard to get to. I hope everyone that is effected is ok and that things might come back to ‘normality’ as soon as possible.
I don’t think Colorado has seen “normal” in several years, and I am despairing of ever seeing it again, except as an occasional fluke. We’re supposed to have a few days of temps in the 20s (70s-ish in the antique system) with possible, but not probable, rain, so that will help. I think our “normal” weather has moved north by at least one state.
So the fire in this area has mostly been put out by the recent rains. Thanks again for all your concerns. Oh here is a picture of the smoke from my place. This was taken on the second day before it got really bad.
[flickr_photo src=http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8150/7540821674_074bfbf1d5.jpg nsid=78328976@N05 id=7540821674]HPIM3210[/flickr_photo]
Good grief, Adam, that’s horrible! I’d have been dead of asthma weeks ago had I been up there. I hope all’s well with you now.
With my wifes asthma it was good we had vacation last week so we could get out of town for a while. Its been a blessing that it has cleared up when we got back. This was the only day I could actually take a picture were you could see the smoke plume the other days were so hazy you could not tell if it was smoky or just cloudy in photos.