Actually, that’s a stupid math error: that line should be
“somewhat MORE than half my life ago”
Jeez, the internet needs to decide what it’s slang means so people can use it properly. Anyway, sorry for insinuating something about the heathen if it’s bad form. He was still being snide, though.
This really sucks royally. All the Sydney dopers know the feeling well. The Colorado fires are starting to hit the news here. There was a lengthy piece on the radio today.
Fenris, you’re right that poor fire management is a bloody huge problem. In Australia, the debate is still raging as to whether or not controlled burns are the answer. I know which side I’m on. I always feel a bit nervous each time another hot, dry summer passes without any fires. Just another layer of dead eucalyptus leaves and twigs on the ground. The worst part is that eucalypts and pines both contain a fair amount of oil, so when they go, they go bigtime.
I have a lot of sympathy for the green movement, but I can’t agree with their continued oposition to controlled burning before fires, and backburning during fires. It’s well-intentioned, but a little misinformed (oops, gettin’ political. 
).
Best of luck to all the Colorado Dopers. The US was very helpful to us during the New South Wales fires last year, so I hope our State Premier gets off his bum and sends some of our own fire fighting experts and equipment your way, like they did for California awhile back.
I feel bad for what’s happening up in CO. New Mexico is having a bad fire season, too.
The part of ABQ I live in hasn’t had rain in a couple of months.
The forests are closed here.
Oh fuck you, you screaming partisan douchefucker. :rolleyes:
You know, it really burns me up that some people think they’re exempt from fire bans. I’m seething; this infuriates me. My scorching anger is sweltering. The best I can do, though, is glare smolderingly at nothing in particular. Maybe this fire will kindle more interest in enforcement of the bans, and it could even ignite new public policy. In the meantime, I’ll just have to fume until my anger flares up again.
One of the only good things to come out of this is the feeling you get when you tour the blackened aftermath of these terrible fires, and see little green shoots sprouting up everywhere. The wilderness will bear the scars of this for a long time, but it will also do a stand-up job of coming back to near normal in a surprisingly short time.
In other words, the fuck-offs that start these fires will one day be dead and buried, but the forests will still be there.
I had made plans to go riding out at Deckers next weekend - guess that won’t be happening.
I live in SW Littleton, and have to wonder if the fire will actually manage to make it much further north… The sheer range and devestation of this fire is just mind blowing. Yes, the forests will return (probably to be burned down by yet another in a long line of idiots) but the scars will be there for a long time.
Ex-Grand Junctionite here. I’m taking little solace in the fact I don’t have to personally witness this event. What’s particularly distressing is that I don’t see the overall mechanics of this situation changing for a long time to come.
I was just up on the Rampart Range Road camping this weekend in the Jackson Creek area. We hiked up Devil’s Head Trail to the DNR Fire tower and it was absolutely gorgeous. A clear line of sight no matter which direction you were looking. That was around noon on Saturday, that night, at sunset, the smoke began on the horizon and by two Sunday morning we were packing up and heading off the mountain, back to Colorado Springs. I was surprised at how fast that fire moved. Rampart Range Road is now closed, most likely for the remainder of the season, and I saw in the Denver Post on Monday that the Devil’s Head Fire Tower has been evacuated.
I really hope whoever started this mess it was REALLY liked that campfire they had.
I feel your pain Fenris, I’m south of Pueblo between Pueblo and Walsenburg on I-25. They did a controlled burn off the side of I-25 a week or two back, and they’re banning fireworks sales for the whole state I believe. Everything is so dry, we had to look forever to find hay for the horses because we can’t turn them out to pasture, there’s no grass left.