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Picture of Bill/Oregon
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Well, it was finally my turn to see a familiar place destroyed -- by the Almeda Fire that raced along Interstate 5 from Ashland to Medford, Oregon, on Tuesday. This totally destroyed mobile home park was featured on the national news. I grabbed this drone shot off of Reuters. My parents lived here from about 1992 to 2001, Mom dying in the house that would have been at the far upper left in 1999. As these places go this was a nice one -- clean, quiet, newer homes, clubhouse and pool. Glad Dad did not live to see this destruction.

IMG_20200910_093337462 by ComeWatson, on Flickr


There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.
– John Green, author
 
Posts: 16269 | Location: Sweetwater, TX | Registered: 03 June 2000Reply With Quote
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Happy Camp mostly burned this week, my father used to maintain a Siskyou Telephone Company microwave repeater there.
We hunted squirrels in the pines on the way up to the tower...


TomP

Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when wrong to be put right.

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Posts: 14321 | Location: Moreno Valley CA USA | Registered: 20 November 2000Reply With Quote
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I live pretty far away from these fires but we can see and smell the effects all the way in SWMO.

The sun last evening, out my front door, shrouded in smoke.





~Ann





 
Posts: 19121 | Location: The LOST Nation | Registered: 27 March 2001Reply With Quote
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The fires are tragic, but they are the results of decades of poor forestry practices coming home to roost. The hot dry weather is just the ignition source.


Grizz


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Posts: 1573 | Location: Central Alberta, Canada | Registered: 20 July 2019Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Well, it was finally my turn to see a familiar place destroyed -- by the Almeda Fire that raced along Interstate 5 from Ashland to Medford, Oregon, on Tuesday. This totally destroyed mobile home park was featured on the national news. I grabbed this drone shot off of Reuters. My parents lived here from about 1992 to 2001, Mom dying in the house that would have been at the far upper left in 1999. As these places go this was a nice one -- clean, quiet, newer homes, clubhouse and pool. Glad Dad did not live to see this destruction.

IMG_20200910_093337462 by ComeWatson, on Flickr


Very sorry

The destruction of nature is terrifying.

Mike
 
Posts: 13145 | Location: Cocoa Beach, Florida | Registered: 22 July 2010Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by Grizzly Adams1:
The fires are tragic, but they are the results of decades of poor forestry practices coming home to roost. The hot dry weather is just the ignition source.


Grizz


I agree. Thirty-some years of zero forest management. Even the ancients conducted regular burns and cut trees for lodgepoles (etc) and firewood.

Too much environmental stupidity anymore.


~Ann





 
Posts: 19121 | Location: The LOST Nation | Registered: 27 March 2001Reply With Quote
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Picture of Bill/Oregon
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Grizz, I agree with the damning assessment of heedless forest management practices combined with the challenges of a dynamic climate.
In the case of this fire, however, forest management was not in play, is it started near a creekside greenway corridor on the valley floor, and the vegetation was mostly heat-stressed cottonwood, Oregon Ash and Oregon white oak with the the flames pushed by high winds in red flag conditions. A perfect storm scenario that would have been very difficult to foresee or prepare for.
Southern Oregon has its share of mismanaged USFS and BLM lands and an ugly "California chapparral" suite of volatile trees and plants including Pacific madrone and manzanita, but these were not a factor in this fire.


There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.
– John Green, author
 
Posts: 16269 | Location: Sweetwater, TX | Registered: 03 June 2000Reply With Quote
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Yep, the Indians burned off the plains + helped the environment. I know a rancher here who does the same thing annually + his next grass growth is superior to any others around. It is a shame + I feel or those who are suffering through it, but at the same time, I told my insurance company who wanted to tripe my rates that it wasn't my fault or my responsibility to bail them (the insurance companies) out.


Never mistake motion for action.
 
Posts: 17357 | Location: Austin, Texas | Registered: 11 March 2013Reply With Quote
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Bill, sorry to see your old stomping ground going up in smoke. Hopefully everybody there is okay.

I live between two fires burning close by right now. One on a slope mostly logged off next to houses and the other in the only patch of timber left after logging from the valley to the top of the ridges. Both caused by power lines during the recent wind storm. We haven't seen the sky or even the tops of the trees in a week. Everything inside and out smells of smoke.

If by forest management you mean proscribed burns then I agree. We have been too successful at fighting fires and cutting trees for far too long. We need to burn the understory in a controlled manner to improve the forest. But logging everything clearly isn't the answer it only makes things worse. When the fires here hit the clear cuts it only made the fire move faster in the slash left over.

The other problem is how hot and dry it is now. Considering it's supposed to be a temperate rain forest here I've never seen it so dry. We have trees that are actually dying of thirst every summer now. The environment is clearly warming up and man needs to do whatever possible to avert this or pay even more dearly in the future.


Roger
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Posts: 2785 | Location: Washington (wetside) | Registered: 08 February 2005Reply With Quote
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How did the fire start? Lightning? Downed power lines? Arson?
 
Posts: 18516 | Registered: 04 April 2005Reply With Quote
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It might not matter in the long run but I agree that it would be good to know.


Never mistake motion for action.
 
Posts: 17357 | Location: Austin, Texas | Registered: 11 March 2013Reply With Quote
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Many of the Oregon fires were lightning-caused, but the one in the Rogue Valley is under criminal investigation.


There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.
– John Green, author
 
Posts: 16269 | Location: Sweetwater, TX | Registered: 03 June 2000Reply With Quote
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Good grief! I guess there are no housing density ordinances out there. You could reach over to your neighbor's house and shake their hand. That's asking for a disaster.

quote:
Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Well, it was finally my turn to see a familiar place destroyed -- by the Almeda Fire that raced along Interstate 5 from Ashland to Medford, Oregon, on Tuesday. This totally destroyed mobile home park was featured on the national news. I grabbed this drone shot off of Reuters. My parents lived here from about 1992 to 2001, Mom dying in the house that would have been at the far upper left in 1999. As these places go this was a nice one -- clean, quiet, newer homes, clubhouse and pool. Glad Dad did not live to see this destruction.

IMG_20200910_093337462 by ComeWatson, on Flickr
 
Posts: 3645 | Location: SC,USA | Registered: 07 March 2002Reply With Quote
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