I live right in the middle of the range of downy brome, I see it growing right now in my yard, it stays green all winter, a hardy annual that dries to a bone by early summer, every year. He says he worries that more than half of the remaining population of sage grouse in Washington state — some 500 birds — may have been lost in this fire. The trees that are left alive in the burn area no longer have protection from the wind they grew up with and most blow down. To quote from Hillary Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands:“Everybody is following the ‘stay home, stay safe’ order. We had no shortage of arsonists on the west coast for that dry wind event. Schroeder is a biologist with the state’s fish and wildlife agency. There is evidence for this everywhere there is vegetation that can burn. Of those, 343 were in Western Washington, while 884 were on the Eastern side of the state, The Seattle Times reported. Clearing and chipping brush, more gravel (less fuel), fire resistant siding and roofs — cost money. You can see the agricultural areas (light green) and forested areas (darker green). Grass grows in the wet spring, dies during the dry summers, and regrows the following year. Life will be mostly extinct. Well, they succeeded at KNKX but at least I have this blog and the support of many of you. Is it still? There are some high rainfall areas, but Seattle gets about the same annual rainfall as Dallas. As I noted in earlier blogs, 2020 was not a particularly favorable year for higher-elevation wildfires, with normal April 1 snowpack and temperature/precipitation conditions that were not particularly unusual. DONATE HERE. It’s surrounded by fields and towns. It implies that it is climate change, not lack of forest management…, a change to summer drought, then rain concentrated in a winter period producing a lot of grass to dry out and catch fire in an earlier starting and longer lasting fire season…. 2) Re-mineralise the dirt. You must know this yet you choose to (fecklessly) attempt to mislead. (~36″). Global warming? So while we have a few bucks and the energy to make changes — neighbors refuse. The fact is that grasslands are a natural consequence of mountains blocking moisture flow. I don’t think so. Folks, forced to stay home because of COVID ,decided to clean up their properties and then burned the debris. "Wildfires are threatening the safety and livelihoods of Washingtonians all across the state," Inslee said. We now view wildland with some awe and much romantic fantasy. It is simply not true.Such false claims not only promote unnecessary fear and concern but work against taking steps that would actually help mitigate future future fires.For  example, when very strong winds are forecast (and they were), eastern WA utilities could de-energize the power lines, as done in California. Back in Washington, Michael Schroeder is having a similar experience. More than 600,000 acres of forest and sagebrush rangeland have burned in Washington State this fire season, leveling at least one town and destroying ranches, farms and homes across the central and eastern part of the state, as well as knocking out power to thousands of people. Not really. I give you Governor Newsom, California. A plot of the ten-hour fuel moisture at the Columbia NWR RAWS fire weather site in central Columbia Basin (below)  for the 60 days ending Sept 8 shows the story. Can man reverse it? “There’s no way.”, Schroeder takes some solace by looking back on the geological time frame. Fire and the ability to nurture and contain fire has made mankind the predominant species on this planet. We are hopeless at climbing trees, cannot fly, cannot move within them easily and even if we could, there’s not a lot of anything for us to eat in there. This is a good report as it is clearly a Reality Check, especially as regards not everything due to “climate change”. I live in North Idaho and it seemed like we had a wetter than normal year up to about June… For the Columbia Basin, this is when you would get the most growth out of the grass/brush in the scrub-lands. Antarctic ice melt related to tropical weather shifts: Study, ‘Digital land grab’ deprives traditional LatAm peoples of ancestral lands: Report, Fire burns Pantanal’s upland heart and threatens nature’s fragile balance, Forest degradation outpaces deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Study, Madagascar’s top court criticizes government handling of mining project, Mining covers more than 20% of Indigenous territory in the Amazon, More than 470 oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon since 2000: Report. Beachie Creek Fire Update - Sunday, October 18, 2020 (Beachie Creek Fire Wildfire) Archie Creek and Thielsen Fire Update October 18, 2020 (Archie Creek Fire Wildfire) Riverside and Lionshead(MHF) Fires Update for October 17, 2020 (Riverside Fire Wildfire) The Northwest Large Fire map depicts large fires in Oregon and Washington reported to the NWCC and is updated daily throughout the fire season. Extraordinary, record-breaking winds (for the season) hit eastern Washington, with gusts reaching 50-70 mph on September 7th. One hour fuels – grass, needles, leaves carry fire from one place to the next. Warm, moist air comes out of the Pacific ocean from the Southwest, rises to get over the Olympic and Cascade Mtns, cools, and rains out the moisture before it can get to Eastern Washington. Like cancer it spreads and grows until *nothing* is left except sand. He walks up Mary Jane Hill to look down on an area where, just a few months ago, he was counting sage grouse. makes its own climate But look carefully and you will notice something important:  nearly all the acreage burned was not in terrain or in forests, but in the grasslands and scrub of the  eastern Washington lowlands. Imagine what the fires would be like if the O2 level was higher? Simple, But when The (Rain) Forest goes, so does the rain and in comes The Fire. Endless trees with, as per the forests of SE Asia, a dense undergrowth. The ‘Northern Complex’ fire near Quincy was started by lightning and burned slowly in steep canyons for 2 weeks and had burned about 20,000 acres. Burn bans are signaled to start after the fires start not when the fuel is tinder dry and run weeks into the rainy season , causing a loss of respect for those in charge. It’s complicated.____________________________This is the kind of blog that gets me into trouble with the climate activist community, but folks in our state deserve the truth and only the truth will allow society to take rational steps to protect itself from environmental threats. This summer’s projects included stone-panels and fiber/cement (Hardieplank) on half the house, and a few other things. There were some big fire areas in eastern Washington. There are a variety of factors that contribute to the loss of sage grouse in the West. The 2020 Washington Labor Day fires were part of the 2020 wildfires in the U.S. state of Washington.The Labor Day fires began on September 7, 2020, driven by high winds and some of which were sparked by downed power lines. As I mentioned above, Washington State had more fires than normal. The ONLY ways to stop the fires are: I wonder how much they get paid to promote the alarmist position? Firefighting resources throughout the state have been spread thin due to commitments to pre-existing and projected fire activity, and this current emergency is compounded by extreme high temperatures and dry weather, as well as the increase of visitors to Washington wilderness areas. The Forest might then become liable to burning and once it starts it is like a cancer. State of Washington - Fire news from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources ; Large Fire Map. They were also well versed in fire use and containment. Diversity dogma is a Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, politically congruent quasi-religious belief not limited to racism, sexism, and other class-based bigotry. Then ten-hour fuel moisture is for vegetation of 1/4 to 1 inch in diameter and values under 15% are dry enough to burn. grassoline)–check the map below to see this. It’s too dry and’always has been. It has for millions of years. Is it because of man? It looks the same.” His shoulders slump and his voice breaks and trails off. 350Seattle! Homes in the middle of grassland/brush could be built or remodeled to lesson their tendency to burn. Our biweekly podcast delivering news & inspiration from nature’s frontline. Some material from contributors may contain additional copyrights of their respective company or organization. Something unusual. This is as normal as it gets when the conditions are ripe for fire and sooner or later they always are. So, variation in rainfall and summer temps seem to have little affect on the growth of the seasonal grasses. camping has moved into rv’s with propane appliances , even mountaineers use pack stoves with various packed in fuel sources.