Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? OK, I admit it, this is anything other than a beautiful forest setting. In fact, it is the result of many years of fire suppression. I took this picture up in Rogers Canyon yesterday and I was thinking that I am partly responsible for this. After almost 30 years working in this area, running around putting all the fires out, the result is a huge buildup of stuff waiting to burn. I say waiting to burn because if nothing is done to clean this up, it will most certainly burn before it rots away.
In my wanderings , mentally and physically, I have come to the conclusion that if we are to successfully manage national forests, we need to have a regular and recurring burning program so that fire is returned as the natural process to clean up the forest. Once established, it would be necessary to burn each year the fraction of the forest that reflects the burn frequency. Oh yeah! I'm dreaming now! While I know that prescribed fire is a big thing these days, the scope of a program that could effectively treat the large areas that need treating is well beyond funding. Oh well, it's gonna burn anyway, one way or the other.
