I know this is an off topic here, but has anyone been following the fire situation here in Montana? Right now we're surrounded by fires. One fire just West of us at Thompson River doubled in size in one day. We are in a hurt for rain. Tonight we're expecting dry thunder storms. Do you remember seeing this picture of elk in a creek back in 2000? It was taken just south of here.

 

Just every day stuff here in So. Calif.......

Historically, to much fire protection (supressing small surface fires that don't crown into the treetops), and letting the forests get to thick is often the culprit. We rode the other day in an area where they had thinned the forest through logging, and you could just tell it was way more healthy than the overgrown areas. But, when you let the forest overgrow, the fire burns extremely hot, and just completely sterilizes the ground so the seeds don't germinate after the fire. Lots of poor forest management going on out there!

 

Dam the worthless tree huggers. They won't even let us harvest the burned timber here.

 

Yea, I've been following it. My brother lives in Missoula and is fighting fires this summer. 14 days on and 2 off. He said the other day he saw flames 3 to 400 feet off the tops of the trees.