Wildfires

The wildfires in California are quite a disaster. We have much worse fires, size-wise, in Montana, but nowhere near the property damage. They've already evacuated more than 500,000 people, which is more than half the population of Montana. I would venture to say that there are more destroyed homes in California in the last two days than there have been in Montana (by wildfires) in recorded history.

I was looking at some AP photos of the fires and their aftermath, and saw one where they said a hilltop hadn't burned in recorded history, and the surrounding area hadn't burned in more than 50 years. Montana has much of the same problem, in that fire has been artificially suppressed for so long that the amount of fuel has increased and increased over the years. Some say "let it burn," and some say "clear-cut the forest." Neither is right. It's always a touchy thing fooling around with Mother Nature, but then that's what man does.

I felt like a total soccer mom today, running the kids to school, picking two up, then dropping one off at dance, then taking the other back to school to pick up his brother, then dropping him off at art class after picking up little sister from dance, then picking up dinner, then picking up the art student before heading home for dinner. Then I went to work, mostly because I needed a break.