Thursday, July 31, 2008

Twitchy eye movements

I mentioned the Buck Rut Tree just a little further down the page- the world's biggest Ponderosa! Three hundred years old! Fire scars eighty years down, and then again fifty years further! Eight feet in diameter! No branches for the first thirty feet! Growing on a tiny hill in the center of a meadow! (Thus getting the waters needed to grow seven thousand feet tall)

Yeah, the National Guard protected that tree from the ravages of fire.

The effort must have been great, we know, but they managed to overcome the obstacles required to save this tree. They cut off all branches on the first 70 feet, and put dozer lines through the meadow to protect this valuable resource from FIRE! THEY PUT DOZER LINES THROUGH A GODDAMN MEADOW! Do you have any idea how hard that is to fix?

Day two of fire school, the teacher described a perfect safety zone.
"One hour fuels or no fuels. A border of three times the height of the fire. Ideally, a damp spot." His eyes glazed over, "If you're doing things right, you would be comfortable in flip flops, a lawn chair, and a glass of ice cold be-lemonade, watching that fire burn the forest around you to ash." Then he showed pictures of, I kid you not, this very meadow. I'm really glad our governor sent the fine men and women of the National Guard up here to protect us. I weep for Iraq.

I tried to find a link to the article so that I could be incredibly sarcastic about it, but apparently someone in the chain of command had the sense to kill that press release.

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