What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

My grandpa owned a few acres in Bandera TX a few years ago we went out there to hunt, it was on fire at some point as there was plenty of charcoal throught the property but looking at the land nature came back just fine from it

When i hear of forest fires i dont see a waste or anything, its just nature doing its thing, granted it wasnt started by some shit head camper that didnt put out their fire

 

Yeah not sure how it's a waste, it goes back to growing the forests.

 

FWIW I did this method over a year ago and they still look good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEJbKLZ7RmM

 

Come see how proper logging management is done in Arizona. We don't clear-cut like the other areas.
And on the flip side, come to Arizona and see how the forrest circus mismanaged logging and see the results of two of the largest fires in our states history. All because greeny's infiltrated and stopped logging.
Rodeo-Chediski fire = Burned area: 468,638 acres
Wallow fire = Burned area: 538,049 acres

 

I hesitate to get into this conversation, because it ranges on the political.

You guys are touching on a lot of the (IMO) right issues - letting natural fires burn, better forest management (which in many cases, is to let fires burn). There are - IMO - two additional issues worth bringing up:

• I think there's a little misconception though is that "greenies" are the ones who result in the overly dense forests, due to the desire for preservation/no logging. To some extent, that's true, but the largest reason that we (as a country) fight forest fires is because of our human encroachment into the forests (i.e. dwellings/structures). In order to protect that property (something that insurance companies and individuals who live/own there want to protect), we stop fires that would otherwise be "safe" to allow to burn, and that prior to our encroachment would have burned - perhaps more frequently and thus as smaller fires.
• Drought - the climate in many forests across the west has changed in the last several decades. The reduced water itself isn't what's contributed to much of the dead wood for fires (though it doesn't help), rather it has weakened the trees and allowed beetles in. Beetle kill is responsible for a lot of dead wood in our forests now, and we all know that dry standing dead wood is great for fires. The ongoing drought then plays a significant role in the agility for a forest to regrow.

 

Put on a new bumper cover

 

This is my #1 issue with them. Creating bypasses. Which inevitably lead to road closures.

I see so many doing this when I’m on the trail. I’ll tried explaining the above in two sentences to a group once. They couldn’t fucking care less, “but muh freedumbs!” was essentially their response.

 

And getting splashed with whatever fluid du jour that happens to be leaking

 

that’s what she said.

 

Very good points, Dan, and quite reasonable.

I would also hypothesize that the introduction of non-native species has had a massive impact on how fire propagates and how it is managed.

Two big examples from where I grew up are cheatgrass and tamarisk. With the cheatgrass invading areas like the Mojave Desert, it fills in the space between native plants that would have normally been preserved, and which would have served as natural firebreaks. Instead, you have a continuous carpet of what could be the best fire propagation fuel in the world that allows fire to completely devastate the native creosote, Joshua trees, sage, pinyon juniper, etc. Tamarisk is almost as bad, but in addition, it chokes out native plants near the scarce water sources by being ravenous consumers of water. On top of that, it’s super resinous, and burns wicked hot, so once you start a blaze in the tamarisk, it will burn hot and hard and take things like cottonwood along with it.

Added to the points that have been previously made, you can see just how challenging it is to ‘manage’ forest, without even considering and dealing with political considerations and basic bureaucratic ineptitude.

 

Totally. Actually, I thought of non-natives just after I posted my response. And right along with non-natives (often the carrier for them) is grazing.

There's been an interesting conversation in the DV thread about this over the last week. Turns out that the big (Cima) Dome fire in the Mojave Preserve was likely exacerbated by non-natives. But also - and this is the part I find even more interesting - that the density of Joshua Trees there (which is of course very cool to experience, and sad to lose) was likely the result of grazing. The grazers don’t eat the (native) blackbrush which is a nursery species for Joshua trees. So you end up with a landscape with far more blackbrush than usual which then means far more Joshua tree seedlings can reach maturity than is usual. So these unusually dense Joshua tree forests that have become iconic are perhaps not natural to begin with!

 

That is fascinating stuff!

Nowadays, with things like grazing, recreation, mining, and all of the other uses of public land, it really is difficult to imagine what ‘natural’ actually looks like.

I know land managers often get shit on and sometimes it’s deserved, but I sympathize with them in a lot of ways. Trying to balance impact against reasonable use of public lands is an exercise in compromise. Which means the ATV & 4WD lobbies, the ranchers, the environmentalists, the miners, the developers and all of the other user groups never believe that you’re doing enough (for them) or you’re doing too much (for the other groups). So if you’re doing an acceptable job as a manager, you can likely count on everyone being pissed off with you about something.

 

Finally stepped up and ordered a set of scs ray 10’s and 285’s. I’ll be on fedex tracker for the next few days.

 

Holy F@$”@$!!!!!!

 

And now just west of Tahoe on the rubicon trail.

 

Supposed to go to Bog Bear tomorrow. Maybe not anymoee

 

Big Bear? I would definitely skip that trip, the fire in Yucaipa that those dimwits started with their gender reveal party is tearing through the area near there. Not at Big Bear itself but they closed the 38 going up on that side. Probably terrible air quality all over there now.

Edit - looks like they closed it down for all rec activities anyway

 

ALL National Forests in California are now closed.

Anyone making plans to come to this hell hole in the near future should alter their plans accordingly.

Thankfully, I'm bouncing out on Tuesday... for 8 glorious days.

 

Where the fuck we going? Oh wait, working from home...sure. Week 2 and im fucken over it. Sure the house is clean, but im getting fat, and the wifes a real dick. Over it!

 

C-O-L-O-R-A-D-O


By way of Zion, Dixie, Canyonlands, Arches