Originally Posted by flintlocke
I live in one of the biggest counties with I-5 running thru it, and we still only have 7 people per square mile, Valsdad's county is 2.25 people per sq mile.
I don't think a lot of you folks from the eastern states really understand what "remote" means as it applies to the mountain West. 4 of the biggest fires in mountain northern Calif. and Southern Oregon are in areas that have no roads...none. An arsonist would need physical training, backpack, food....basically he'd need to be a Army Ranger candidate, to access the country where these fires appear to have started. Lightning caused fires can be "sleepers" for up to 2 weeks after a lightning event...and this is common. And we had a lightning storm less than 2 weeks ago. Remote radio and telephone repeater sites are on mountain tops, some have no electricity and generate power by burning propane heating thermal generators, some of the ones closer to civilization have power lines running up heavily forested ridgelines. All are frequently exposed to wind and weather events that you folks back east call hurricanes and tropical storms. This is not conjecture..this is fact.
Arson, hell yes, nearer to populated areas, but after the dust settles I think we will discover that even the arson is primarily caused by homeless druggies and meth heads, great way to wipe out a drug debt, great way to put a competing marijuana grower out of business. It is harvest time in the Emerald Triangle.
And yes, there is a political element out there plotting to disrupt the system. I think we will find that these idiots operate in or very near urban centers and universities. But, I will publicly apologize to you guys if it turns out more than a quarter of the fires were arson/sabotage.



I will join in your apology too, should events turn out that way.

And lightning fires, or slash burning, can cause a fire "month" later when a punky stump burns down and ignites the roots, which smolder until it reaches a root exposed to air, on a windy day.

I've run across smoldering stumps and logs in cuts a couple of months after the burn. Fortunately on the wet side after the rains were on the way.

But, on occasion the timber companies get their timing wrong and have to go back in and put out a bigger fire than the clearcut they burned off.

The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men.
In it is contentment
In it is death and all you seek
(Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)

member of the cabal of dysfunctional squirrels?