A Sunday Drive

[ski3pin]

Back on March 22nd we took a drive, staying close to home..............................

Our Backyard III - March 2015

 

[Smokecreek1]

That was a very depressing but informative TR Ski! Most people never see what the result of all these fires really is and how it effects our natural landscapes and environments. For many years I was on a BARE team trying to rehab such areas and remember the challenges as well as the opportunities to attempt "to right the wrongs" of our prior management of many of these areas. It still amazes me how fast the environment rebounds from these "events" when we do things right. Enough said on that subject and while politics will always be a part of the process, we seem to be attempting to use mother nature, science and common sense more and more to properly manage these precious areas (did I hit all the key talking points on that statement?). Any way, thanks for another TR that again triggers many memories-both good and bad-of those days of being out in the field!

Smoke

 

[ski3pin]

Well said Smoke.

 

[Edgewood]

We moved from Northern California four years ago. Smokey air, evacuation four times in three years, heat, drought, we were done.

We moved to Bellingham WA. Daily walks on the bay, mountains and islands an hour away, Seattle and Vancouver an easy train ride away. Haven't looked back.

 

[GroovyDad]

Just curious, were there any mosquitos near the lakes? With the drought, I think they're coming out earlier and earlier. I was bitten about four times last weekend.

 

[longhorn1]

Ski, Thanks for sharing. I've the seen the aftermath of numerous fires in Montana. It doesn't take much to turn something beautiful into something ugly. It is sad.

 

[takesiteasy]

Yes, sadly this year will probably bring more of the same. The world is definitely changing.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

It is sad to see the burned areas.Especially when they are man started.
But regrowth happens maybe not as fast as we would like to see.
One has to look at the massive fire at Yellowstone 1988 and than now at the same burned areas.Although you see still a lot of the dead Lodgepole Pines the new ones have started to really fill in.

Thanks for the views.That is such a special area.
Thanks Ski.

The photo is from March 2011 at 5,000'. About 4' of snow. One storm.
I don't think it has had that much total in the 4 years since than.

Frank

 

[highz]

I too feel that we have been sliding into a very different world. Here is a pic of a view off the Crest Trail in the White Mountain Wilderness of New Mexico. It was taken in late May, 2012. Less that two weeks later the Little Bear fire ripped through here with intense crowning and left sterilized soil and black matchstick trunks.

Regrowth will happen, but these high intensity crown fires delay it a long time. Add climate change to that, and the climax forest may no longer be the same.

 

[Lighthawk]

Really sad to witness the damage. That pyroclastic cloud was apocryphal erupting over the landscape. I've never seen anything like it.

I follow the fungi forums read that the morel mushrooms are showing up at 5,000' and are being collected. Other areas are closed to the public as you found off Wentworth Sprgs.