Fire

[Gologit]

It's not steep unless the Cat will slide....sideways.

 

[madhatte]

It's not steep unless the Cat will slide....sideways.

It might be steep a leeeeeetle before that. Just sayin'.

 

[slowp]

A yooper logger was not happy with the ground he was supposed to log. So, he told the mill folks who bought the sale, "When it tips over, we're done." And the next day, the forwarder tipped over and they were done. A logger had to be found who would pull line, and that was a rare thing at the time.

40 percent ground was considered steep by the FS timber markers.

 

[northmanlogging]

steep is butt sliding and all fours to go up... or when the off side of the stump is well over your head, and if you drop a wedge it can stay down there... and you seriously consider leaving the saw if you are dumb enough to drop it...

 

[slowp]

steep is butt sliding and all fours to go up... or when the off side of the stump is well over your head, and if you drop a wedge it can stay down there... and you seriously consider leaving the saw if you are dumb enough to drop it...

Don't forget the vegetation belays.

Back on topic. Another Something Should Be Done editorial:

Legislature shortsighted on wildfire prevention | Editorials | The Olympian

So far, only one comment.

 

[Gologit]

It might be steep a leeeeeetle before that. Just sayin'.

Good point. I got a 6 on some slick-rock this Spring that wasn't very steep at all. For a couple of minutes I was just a passenger until all the metal on rock screeching and sparks went away. I fetched up against a big stump at the bottom and then everything was okay. I took a coffee break.

LOL...Maybe a thousand years from now some historians will look at those scrape marks and gouges in the rock and try to figure out what kind of weird tribal hieroglyphics they are.

 

[forestryworks]

Don't forget the vegetation belays.

Back on topic. Another Something Should Be Done editorial:

Legislature shortsighted on wildfire prevention | Editorials | The Olympian

So far, only one comment.

Unless some people have found a way to control weather and climate, there is simply no such thing as "wildfire prevention". We can slow it down (fuel reduction) or speed it up (fire suppression), but other than that, Mother Nature has the upper hand when it comes to wildfire.

All the talk about increasing logging ain't any good unless they follow it up with prescribed burning. The Northwest does and has burned many, many times before.

 

[slowp]

Slash reduction, or prescribed burning used to most always happen on Forest Service timber sales. In fact, it still does. KV money is collected from the timber sale receipts for burning. Ground doesn't have to be in a unit to burn this way. It does have to be within the Sale Area and within a certain distance of units.

That's how burning got done on the Eastside, and even burning to improve the forage.

There is one caveat, the sale must be of good enough quality so bids above the advertised rate will be made. Low bids = less KV funds.

 

[madhatte]

There is one caveat, the sale must be of good enough quality so bids above the advertised rate will be made. Low bids = less KV funds.

Aye, and there's the rub. If a sale is of marginal profitability, who'll bid knowing the liability will cost them profit? I have yet to meet a logger who works Pro Bono.

 

[Metals406]

Don't forget the vegetation belays.

Back on topic. Another Something Should Be Done editorial:

Legislature shortsighted on wildfire prevention | Editorials | The Olympian

So far, only one comment.

I used the vegetation belay/ascend techniques, as well as Northman's 'scratch and claw' technique.

I'm not exaggerating when say I lost 10 pounds in 4 days on that fire -- and the support team fed us very, very well.

 

[1270d]

A yooper logger was not happy with the ground he was supposed to log. So, he told the mill folks who bought the sale, "When it tips over, we're done." And the next day, the forwarder tipped over and they were done. A logger had to be found who would pull line, and that was a rare thing at the time.

40 percent ground was considered steep by the FS timber markers.

Don't be making fun of us yoopers just because we don't have mountains

Although I did find and cut a hill that the tracked bunchers couldn't work. My back tires spent a good bit of time off the ground(had to cut downhill) and the forwarder slid quite a bit.

 

[Jacob J.]

In the very grand scheme of things, I think that what will come of this will be a policy of wildland firefighters being encouraged to let houses burn along WUI margins more often. I think this policy will be very unpopular. My hope is that local communities will take it upon themselves to fund and maintain Firesafe standards, which will require thinning and pruning forested areas adjacent to them. I also hope to see less fear of prescribed burning. I want to see both a broader understanding of fire-dependent ecologies and a greater willingness to be proactive about local assets' safety. I want to see communities empowered to be less dependent on state and federal agencies for their own well-being. This argument could seem to be contrary to the discussion regarding "why does Prescott have a Hotshot crew, anyway?" It's not, though -- a Hotshot crew is a nationally-deployable asset which has no business milling around a single town. Prescott would have been better off spending that same money (I realize that it wouldn't be the SAME "same" money) on thinning and RX burning fire-prone areas in their own back yards.

Meanwhile, closer to home, I do definitely have some things I'd rather not speak about publicly. Once the fire season is over and the dust has settled, I'll see if I can't summarize our Lessons Learned.

Another key piece of the puzzle that people are overlooking, is that the Yarnell Hill fire grew very little after the burning period in which the fatalities happened.

 

[RandyMac]

 

[2dogs]

Cody and I worked the Chestnut fire for Cal Fire this past Sunday. The job was to cut some burned eucalyptus along the main access road. The tops were all braided together nicely and we had to work only the middle of the strip. It took quite a bit of work but by 17:00 we had the four big trees and several smaller trees all the way on the ground. I took a few pics that I will post in a day or two. BTW if Cody logs on and says anything about getting the saws stuck, ignore him. He lies. And doesn't have any pics to prove anything.

 

[madhatte]

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Site issues aside, consider that post "liked".

 

[Gologit]

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Site issues aside, consider that post "liked".

Yup same here. Cody knows a level back cut when he sees it, too. Right Bill?

 

[madhatte]

Wildfire tactics in a structure conflagration? WUI goes both way, folks!

 

[slowp]

Wildfire tactics in a structure conflagration? WUI goes both way, folks!

Where were the dozers and airtankers???

 

[madhatte]

Tankers were for sure on the west side of the Mississippi. Shoulda been plenty of dozers available, though.

 

[2dogs]

There is a 500 acre wildland fire in Big Sur today. 15 structures have already been destroyed. Weird, it was 81 degrees today. More to follow I'm sure.