That Mournful Throb in the Western Sky—-Monday, September 7, 2018

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The huge fire on the Uncompahgre Plateau (Facebook Page) has grown and expanded to an even larger amount…filling the sky with more dark smoke as fresh timber is consumed.

The visible smoke is directly behind us now. Rising to meet the sky where the smoke and the air become as one. 

(You need to be signed onto FaceBook to open the blue links)

It’s all so terribly sad to me.  The beautiful forest quickly becoming nothing but ash, the animals fleeing…some with their fur on fire….all the fooddestroyed for those who must forage to stay alive—-the thoughts of this destruction over-whelms me.

Very sadly your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

31 thoughts on “That Mournful Throb in the Western Sky—-Monday, September 7, 2018”

  6. So sad — the fire situation in the whole west has been terrible this summer. We had to check fire reports when we were in your State in June when the ‘kids took us places to be sure of no road closures … and they’ve told me the situation is still not good. And there is a fire burning east of us here in Oregon that we get smoke from when the wind blows this way…. same thing in Washington State and California. and probably othre places too where i don’t get first hand reports. So scary.

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  7. Horrific to see. Just think of all the native wildlife affected by this fire
    and the destruction of property,crops and stock owned by farmers/ranchers
    I will be furious if you reply that this was the act of an arsonist!
    Keep safe
    Colin

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  9. I do not mean to be trivilaizing, or sound cliche, but it is part of nature. My neighborhood burned in the 1950s because of what grew back in the area after the redwood was harvested. (Redwood forests are some of those weird ecosystems here that do not benefit from fire, and do not often burn.) The ecosystem here is very disrupted from what it should be, but fire helps it to recover. The redwoods survive, and will eventually recover and dominate. It will not happen during my lifetime, and will likely take several centuries, but it will happen. Although fire is not a necessary part of that process, it would accelerate the process a bit. It just does not get the chance to help because so many of us live here now. Other ecosystems in California would likewise benefit from fire, but can not be allowed to burn with so many homes in them. The lack of fire is what caused the decline of the Monterey pine that started in the 1980s, and is only decelerating now. As the tired old trees die out, the forest will eventually recover, even without fire, but it takes much longer. The forest knows what it is doing. It has lived with fire since shortly after the third day of Genesis.

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    • Well, probably true. BUT in this case drought is a huge cause AND the fact the Forrest Service does not allow the logging of beetle killed trees or the trees of Aspen die off….so we have acres and acres and acres of dead timber…which results in just what we are seeing when lightening strikes.

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      • But drought, beetles and disease are also natural. The beetles might not be as much of a problem if fires burned more regularly and efficiently. The beetles and diseases that killed so many Monterey pines in the 1980s only did so because the region was not burning, and there were so many old trees for beetles and disease to proliferate in.

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  12. We have been going thru this all summer; too sad for words. My heart aches for the animals, especially the young ones who are not yet strong enough to get out of the way of the flames. Horrible!!

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    • It is. We heard yesterday from a Division of Wild Life officer that several bear died over the winter because of our dougt….they went into winter hungry and didn’t wake up. Sad.

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