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Hearsay: In Washington state, a Vietnam vet pilot started working on forest fires after the Vietnam war and has been doing work in it ever since, though he's g
by eYrKEC2 4y ago
Hearsay:
In Washington state, a Vietnam vet pilot started working on forest fires after the Vietnam war and has been doing work in it ever since, though he's going to retire whenever he wants as he's past retirement age now.
What he says has changed is:
* lack of smoke jumpers -- the state thinks it costs too much to have adrenaline junkies waiting to fly out and put out a fire.
* lack of will to fight forest fires as they are deemed "good"
* inter-department fighting between federal and state managed land. Doesn't matter what state does if federal has land right next to it that they think is "good" to burn.
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Also, my wife's cousin is an Alaska smoke jumper. He says that smoke jumpers in the lower 48 are waaaay more safety conscious than they used to be and they're vastly more unwilling to get into the fray of the fire than previously. Whether that safety is warranted or not, I do not know, but it definitely could contribute to the problem.
- rendang 4y agoWhy would you want to put out natural forest fires when that just builds up more flammable material for next time?
- eYrKEC2 4y agoWhat if there are other solutions, like managing the forests in other ways, that does not make air quality be at unsafe levels for 1 month a year.
- mdorazio 4y agoAre any of these bad things?
- eYrKEC2 4y ago2 of the last 3 years, the outdoor air quality has been so bad due to these forest fires that it was unsafe to exercise outdoors and kids fall soccer season has been delayed by 1 month until snow fell in the mountains to put out the raging forest fires. Do you think that's bad?
- opportune 4y agoThose are a natural part of the environment of the west coast. The fires are getting worse because we keep putting them out too early
- eYrKEC2 4y agoSo our solution is to not modify or manage nature to our liking but instead to simply live in an 1800's coal town for 1 month a year? We're not burning 1/100th of the forest every year, so we will never catch up.