Yosemite is starting to burn

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
Rim fire up to 193,000 acres and forecast is not good.

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3660/


2013_08_25-21.21.45.711-CDT.jpeg
 

Arey

Scout
Oct 17, 2007
31
7
Atl. Co. near the ocean
Maybe it's the same one I watched not quite an hour ago, and can't find now. I thought it was at Weatherbug. I suppose that's the downside of the majority of my browsing in a 'private window' . The nighttime segments were really scary. After the Yellowstone fire several years ago there were some very interesting articles on how nature can heal itself, if our species keeps its hands off it.
 

Badfish740

Explorer
Feb 19, 2005
589
44
Copperhead Road
What kind of regeneration will occur after this fire? I get that these fires are not the "healthy fires" that the forests need-they are much too hot because of the overbuildup of fuel on the forest floor, but will any of the trees survive? I've read stories of the forests of Pennsylvania which were clearcut and burned many times, mostly by fires started from passing steam locomotives. Allegheny National Forest was derisively called "Allegheny Bush" when it was first established because it was all just low underbrush. However, 100 years later it's a thriving forest. I guess maybe we won't see the benefits of this fire in our lifetime, but our grandchildren will. Hopefully the 200,000+ acres will be well managed going forward so that a massive blaze like this doesn't happen again.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
We were in Yellowstone about 3 years after the fires in 1988. It was amazing the amount of growth that had already occurred. The problem with Yosemite is if the fire gets to the giants; the Bristle Cone Pines are up to 4600 years old and the Sequoias up to 3000 years old, and the fire is headed in that direction.

One of the largest fires in the northeast occurred in 1903 and 1908 when over a million acres of the Adirondacks burned. A search will get reports. One was said to have been caused by a steam locomotive. The loggers got a lot of blame for dirty logging practices. It is so thick now up there you can't take a walk thru the woods.

Yellowstone 3 years after;

8112482.jpg
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,153
4,258
Pines; Bamber area
I watched the fire fuel specialist speaking tonite out there. He said that the main problem is wild fire suppression. He went on to say that more prescibed burning is needed (management). These two theories do not exactly oppose each other, but if you rely only on prescribed burning it will never get done in total. The land is too big.
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,504
2,766
Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/yosemite-fire-suomi-npp/

The blaze raging its way through a national forest in the Yosemite National Park area, known as the Rim fire, can be seen with frightening clarity at the center of this image taken by NASA's
Suomi NPP

satellite on August 23. The size of the fire is especially obvious in this view, as compared to Lake Tahoe outlined above it, San Francisco Bay to the left and Las Vegas to the right.
1414v1_20130823-RimFire_annot.jpg
 

Star Tree

Scout
Apr 28, 2011
50
14
Waretown
Currently the NJ Forest fire Service has two engines out in California. One on the Stanislaus Nat. Forest the other one on the Sequoia National Forest. I attached a photo of the engine on stand by on the Sequoia . Currently both engines are assigned to initial attack duties although the engine on the Stanislaus is very close to the Rim Fire. The NJFFS has been sending resouces nationally since 1985 through an agreement with the USFS.
 

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