No Shit Sherlock

I generally try to control myself when an absolutely obvious headlines makes it through. I think, perhaps people just don't know. I read this story which reads like an epiphany that a non-Westerner has just found out. It reads like if I first came to New York and said, "Wow, there are tall buildings here for people to actually live in."

Of course, the author is a bit unclear on what they are talking about. She has just found out that native Americans used to burn the forest to clear land. She just learned the some Pine trees are adapted to regular small blazes. And that there are "good" fires set by forest managers.

Yeah, and the sun is bright. Her recent discovery of "good" fires is only about 50 years out of date. They are called "controlled burns" and have been the norm since the 1970s. The National Government, state governments out west and local cities understand what these burns do.

Perhaps she would be better served to understand why these occur less and less these days. She believes it is a problem with local residents unwilling to let areas burn and with the rest of us idiots out west not understanding the process.

Let me assuage her stupid and simplistic thinking. Controlled burns can only happen in that small window between rainy season and dry summers. As the entire region west of the Rockies has been in decade long drought, there hasn't been a good time for a controlled burn. In dry conditions, "controlled burns" very often turn into major fires. In the rainy season you can't really burn anything.

And after major storms (like the recent ones), you can't really do a controlled burn, because all that is holding the ground from sliding is what ever vegetation is still on the ground.

But thanks. Thanks for information. Perhaps next you can tell us why water is wet.