The fires continue to burn -

"Talking About the Fires"
digital collage by Mick Mather

From time to time current events come to the top of my work pile. In this instance, the forest fires in the western United States, and one particular report on a particular effort to stem the encroachment. Without getting overly specific or too political, be wary of falling into the global warming trap that is the not-so-secret-agenda of some reporters, some media and some analysts. For example, last week's 60 Minutes feature took less than 10 minutes to brand the disaster as the result of global warming; and, right on the heels of the Federal Guy-in-Charge telling of decades long practices of removing brush and some second growth as a misguided method of prevention. Since most folks seem to have a short memory, how about reconsidering another decades long, incremental series of limits and outright bans on forest industry practices. This country has always had a healthy forest management plan that includes logical, linear thinking as regards a sustainable future while being good stewards of the environment that, quite likely, would have been a helpful stopgap in the current outbreaks that are now well out of our control. Enough said? I think not, but that's enough from me for the time being.