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

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...

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

How did the fire start? Lightning? Downed power lines? Arson?

It might not matter in the long run but I agree that it would be good to know.

Many of the Oregon fires were lightning-caused, but the one in the Rogue Valley is under criminal investigation.

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