But my fuel load is horrible if it dries this summer. Might be the worst fuel load in years at this rate.
Jeff;
Good morning to you sir, I trust this finds you folks well on a still and yes again warm Sunday in May.
As one who has now lived for more than two dozen decades in an interface zone, perhaps I can throw out a couple thoughts on the matter - but as always they are no more than that.
After WWII we both began to expand our population creating the need for new housing developments and we began to get very, very good at fighting forest fires.
The new housing developments necessarily pushed into formerly forested areas and some areas allowed more logging than others in the development plans.
As well, lets not forget that each tree we can keep around acts as a heat absorbing unit in summer as well as providing shade, so there's a fine line we trod as to how much logging and underbrush removal we can do.
Then too, up into the early '2000's we were allowed to burn the built up pine needles and dead brush on our properties, but the air quality folks now say an emphatic no that practice.
Fire is of course good for natural cycles, but when we have increased fire loads such as you talk about - some areas here are at 7 times and more than there should be - then the resulting fire burns much hotter and kills more than it would have say 100 years ago.
The result then is that the plants which would usually come back after a forest fire do not. Sometimes this leaves a bit of a moonscape environment which among other things is really subject to water erosion when it does finally rain.
At our place we've limbed all the trees to a height of 8' to 10' around the structures and have removed as much dead antelope brush as is practical. The antelope brush burns dead green however, but it's also a major food source for the local mulies which call our yard home.
The summers in the mid '80's were hot and dry too, so we'll see what this summer brings and as always we'll strive to survive it one way or the other - we don't really have a choice in the matter in that regard, do we?
All the best to you folks this summer Jeff.
Dwayne
