Posted on 08/18/2018 9:55:03 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
The fires raging in British Columbia aren't just confined to the province: a NASA satellite captured the smoke as it blanketed the skies over Alberta and Saskatchewan earlier this week.
There are nearly 600 fires burning across B.C. which is in its third day of a province-wide state of emergency. Between Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon 36 new fires started, mostly sparked by lightning.
NASA used two satellites to image the smoke: the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS on its Suomi NPP satellite and the DSCOVR satellite that launched in 2015.
Smoke from the fires rises high into the atmosphere, NASA said, where it doesn't pose an immediate threat to people in the region. However, as the smoke travels eastward, the wind can bring carbon monoxide pollutants down to the surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
Very impressive and sad. However, back in about 1948, there was a gigantic forest fire in Quebec Province (as I recall since I was only 3 years old), but you could see the rolling clouds from it as far south as Baltimore, Md.
That is perhaps the earliest memory I have of anything since I was born (WW2 baby).
Might be off re the year but close to 1948. Will never forget it. Even Smokey the Bear (Canadian version) got a passport and got out of Dodge for the US.
I’m in awe of the people who go to fight these fires. Staggeringly hard, physically demanding work and extreme danger. I don’t know how the crews can remain hopeful when faced with the almost impossible task of extinguishing or controlling the fire.
We visited relatives in north and south Idaho and in Albuquerque when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s. Fires like these sure didn’t seem to be a problem back then. I remember clear blue crystalline summer skies, not hazy, smoke-clouded reddish skies for months on end.
What accounts for the huge increase in BC fires? Did Canada adopt the same environmental policies that the US did? They have continued extensive logging unlike the US, but their fires seem to be even larger than ours.
Sixty years ago, Public Service announcements on TV with Smokey the Bear warned how there were so many wildfires in the USA each year that they could cover the entire state of Louisiana . That is twenty five million five hundred thousand acres.
Have we reached anywhere near that amount in the last fifty years?
Obviously controlled burns are cheaper than any of the mechanized clearing, unless there is lumber to sell. The biggest problem in California is most of the burns are in brush that grew rapidly since the 2016 El Nino and its massive rains. That stuff simply has to burn, there’s no other viable (or economic) outcome.
And, that is exactly why I hover above the ground. LOL!
Interesting—thanks. The Sandia Mountains, where I live East of Albuquerque are similarly overgrown and ripe for a devastating fire, with massive drought and beetle kill. It’s why I joined our local VFD shortly after 9/11, worried that those a-holes might set one off on purpose.
Sounds like we’re on the same page. But, what is CTL, please?
I had to look that one up, too. Found this....
...To illustrate the potential already being realized, one tangible and spreading example in mechanized harvesting is the cut-to-length (CTL) system, which overcomes several drawbacks of conventional logging. Traditionally, tree felling and log manufacture are carried out by an operator with a chain saw; tree trunks (“stems”) are extracted with wheeled skidders or cable systems to roadside and then sawn into logs. Trunks are connected to cable systems manually by operators, climbing over piles of debris and wary of runaway trunks—a dangerous job called “breaking out.” Ad hoc decisions on what log grades to make from each tree trunk are made mentally by chainsaw operators, guided by a few basic log specifications and prices....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVygSS7i3kA
These mulchers can be mounted on these also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVMT-TmdX8I
On steep ground like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez5ld5ks_DI
Or this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUVfb-1jDNk
Of course, when you want bio mass you can do this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-11yXWMqjSg
If its to steep or soft you put these on the tires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZYeJWGLTUk
If its still to steep you do this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LSKHnncaN0
Think we loggers cant do it? Better think again.
I sure don’t doubt that you can!
Thanks for your hard work and for all of the back info, on this.
Good article—thanks!
I have come to the fact that it is those like myself who are to blame for not educating the public on what we do and why we do it.
BTW. You want an eye opener? Take a long, no pun intended, look at this.
And one of the examples under biomass solutions;
http://www.burnchips.com/images/files/Norwich%20University%20Case%20Study.pdf
This school uses a type of steam turbine that produces some electricity for the school, then, from the exhaust from that turbine, they heat the school.
At the other examples, they have the costs savings for biomass these places have received since putting in one of these wood chip plants.
The average costs for CTL vs whole tree logging is right around a grand less per day.
I’m in Alberta. Some fires were probably natural, but so many happened after the storms that I’m convinced some had help. This one of the ways we found through our intelligence gathering overseas that Islam wants to target the west. So, I’d be looking at all the options.
Strangely enough, this is one so-called “strategy” by some on the global warming bandwagon to reduce solar warming of the planet…
Here in the Northeast, the resulting haze high in the atmosphere provided a surreal view of the sunset last night, and a deep, copper colored half-moon reminiscent of the recent lunar eclipses.
Islamic terrorism keeps occurring to me, as well. They threatened this a decade or more ago. I heard the other day that 80% of fires are man-caused, but I can’t vouch for the source. Dry lightning Ismaili certainly a big factor.
A couple weeks ago, a contractor’s fire-fighting plane took off from Pappy Boyington Field in Coeur d’Alene, ID. Something failed on take off and the plane was soon dropping hot parts or fluids which STARTED eight fires. Fortunately, all eight were quickly extinguished before growing very large. What irony!
Good to know—thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNk_cAhz1SU
Been out clearing fire hazards the last day so..
These could be the types of machines that will be used to clear brushy areas for fire prevention.
Take a look at the repy from the gent who replied to Keegan. That is the state of mind nearly all of us in the forest products industry now have. At least those of us who have gone through SFI and BMP practice training.
Uncontrolled fire is unnecessary pollution in this day and age.
Cool video—thanks!
Doubt they’d let that thing anywhere ner the Sandias—a lot of it is designated wilderness.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.