Wildfires

On my way to work this morning, I noticed the sun looked odd. There have been an abnormally large number of wildfires this year in Oregon and Washington; now there are a few close to Portland. The radio traffic reports have mentioned a closed highway to the south due to a human-started wildfire. The radio host this morning said it was most likely a cigarette thrown from car window. An article I read said it might have been caused by someone target shooting. It has been raging for several days and the smoke has finally made it to the Portland skyline. There were no visible clouds but the sun was so dim that could look directly at it without squinting. It was off-putting to see the sun fighting through an invisible cover of smoke. If I hadn't known better, it would have looked like the sun itself had grown dimmer, rather than being blocked by a haze from thousands of acres of burning forests.

The photo below is from the Statesman Journal, showing smoke from a fire that started Sunday near Grants Pass, which is to the south of us by several hours. The smoke isn't nearly this bad in Portland, but it is thick enough to make the sun look like a hazy harvest moon. 

"Plumes of smoke from a wild fire rise over a ridge at the Rogue
River-Siskiyou National Forest between Grants Pass and Cave
Junction in Oregon. (AP Photo/John Luerding)"

In Kansas, I'd heard of Smokey the Bear (and if you watch Conan or know the symbol's history, there technically isn't a "the" in his name, but that's how I learned it and therefore how I will refer to him). To me, it seemed obvious that you should put out your campfire completely and not throw cigarettes into the forest. I couldn't see why a mascot like him was necessary. Now that I'm older, I realize how careless some people are and at least Smokey teaches these "obvious" lessons to children and adults. 

Our first week in Portland, I saw a billboard with Smokey on it and thought it was cute. After living in an area with record breaking wildfires in the early season for fires, I realized how dangerous and devastating they are. Growing up in Kansas, I've driven past countless controlled burns in fields and marveled at the harvest moon every fall. I foolishly thought that forest fires could be combated the same way farmers controlled their burning fields and that it was just a larger effort. However, dense forests with towering trees make these fires nearly impossible to control. It breaks my heart to think of the natural beauty here being destroyed, whether it's by careless people or lightning. Fortunately, most of the fires I've heard about nearby haven't affected too many people's homes. I know it is dangerous work for the firefighters out there and I'm thankful for what they do. It's unfortunate that this is an issue (outside of  naturally occurring wildfires, which are unaviodable). Lives could be spared, property could be saved, and forests could flourish if people just took the extra second to think about their actions.