We’ve seen the smoke here in western Colorado from the large wildfire (Station Fire) burning in the hills above Los Angeles. 

It is not yet known the cause of the fire but one thing that has helped the fire propagate and made it extremely difficult to get under control is the around 40 years worth of thick dry underbrush throughout the area of the burn.  It is fairly common knowledge that fires are nature’s way of cleaning up the trash and rejuvinating forested areas.  The area currently burning near L.A. was way overdue.  According to an AP report,

 Months before the huge blaze erupted, the U.S. Forest Service obtained permits to burn away the undergrowth and brush on more than 1,700 acres of the Angeles National Forest. But just 193 acres had been cleared by the time the fire broke out, Forest Service resource officer Steve Bear said.

…

Some critics suggested that protests from environmentalists contributed to the disaster, which came after the brush was allowed to build up for as much as 40 years.

“This brush was ready to explode,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district overlaps the forest. “The environmentalists have gone to the extreme to prevent controlled burns, and as a result we have this catastrophe today.”

Extreme environmentalists have blocked prescribed burns for years using litigation based on air quality regulation and wildlife protected habitat laws.  Michelle Malkin reported in 2007,

The GAO examined 762 U.S. Forest Service (USFS) proposals to thin forests and prevent fires during the past two years. According to the study, slightly more than half the proposals were not subject to third-party appeal. Of those proposals subject to appeal, third parties challenged 59 percent.

Appeals were filed most often by anti-logging groups, including the Sierra Club, Alliance for Wild Rockies, and Forest Conservation Council. According to the GAO, 84 interest groups filed more than 400 appeals of Forest Service proposals. The appeals delayed efforts to treat 900,000 acres of forests and cost the federal government millions of dollars to address.

Forest Service officials estimate they spend nearly half their time, and $250 million each year, preparing for the appeals and procedural challenges launched by activists.

The Sierra Club have failed to return calls for interviews and declined to comment since the fires which have now consumed close to 150,000 acres and more than 60 buildings and is only 40% contained as of today. 

Earlier this year, in one subdivision that was lost to the fire, homeowners that filed for permits to clear dead brush from near their homes were denied citing that it was natural habitat for field mice.  One homeowner cleared the brush without the permits and was issued a hefty fine for doing so.  That fine, which is still being appealed at this time, was given to the man who now owns the ONLY home not destroyed in the fire.  Prescribed burns and clearing brush to fire protect homes actually work and should outweigh the attempts of idiot extreme environmentalists to block these efforts.  To the nut-job radical tree-huggers; does it seem logical now, to be able to remove dead brush to help prevent a disaster of this nature?  Could this huge fire have been  prevented all together or at least possibly more easily contained saving hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness by allowing fire prevention measures to be conducted?  Most likely.  But it will probably fall on deaf ears.  So shut the hell up, hippies!

-TF