Forest history is busting out all around.
It is significant that a federal judge last week dismissed a request for a Temporary Restraining Order on the Rim Fire. The plaintiffs will probably appeal, but the circuit court wasn’t buying what they were selling. The Forest Service may ultimately prevail, and if so, that will be good for the land.
Tragically, another California megafire. The King Fire, at 88,000 acres. The media reports on threats to homes and private assets, which is understandable. The Forestkeeper laments the loss of good public timber and timberland.
We have come to think of megafires as normal, maybe even routine and simply unavoidable. They’re not. It will take time, but with active forest management, we can put a stop to them. We don’t have to do this anymore.
Now to Bitterroot, before the snow flies.
Forestkeeper Blog 
It is encouraging to see the rapid response of the judge, but yet more encouraging to see the rapid response of the Stanislaus National Forest to last year’s fire. I hope that the Eldorado and Tahoe NFs are already putting together their NEPA teams to begin the post-King Fire assessment I certainly hope that SPI has the mill capacity; with the drought and the megafires it seems like there’s plenty of trees for their mills!
When will we get to the point where people understand that drought is inevitable, fire is inevitable, and therefore that planning and preparation – and the funding and personnel necessary – are critical? I note with dismay that the King Fire spread more rapidly last Wednesday than the Rim Fire did during its period of fastest spread, August 20-22 of 2013, and I also noted that over 6,000 personnel are now involved. Imagine if we were able to use those people for fuels reduction work instead.
Yeah, all that plus the day-after-day of hazardous air quality due to smoke. Part of the remedy is increased use of prescribed fire, but in those cases we get to burn on our terms, not nature’s. We can manage air quality much more effectively if we accelerate fuel treatments, including prescribed fire, instead of the way we’re currently bumbling from megafire to megafire…