|
Fact Finding Trip
Click on pictures to expand them
President Clarence Taber hiked
across mountains inside the perimeter of the Moose fire to bring us
pictures and a first hand report.
Clarence's hike began in the Deadhorse area and took him
up over a ridge and down into the Big Creek drainage where he got a ride
with some firefighters. He estimates that he covered 12 miles on
foot and
was very sore when he got home. Even so he got to see only a small
fraction of the area burned by this gigantic wild fire which was listed as
the largest in the US this year.
A moonscape
 |
Super hot fires like
this can sterilize the soil so it will grow nothing except maybe
weeds. The area south of Star Meadow has been closed for years
after a fire there destroyed the soils and weeds infested the
area. |
Picnic anyone?
 |
Notice the hiking trail thru the middle
of this wasteland. The soil that doesn't wash into our streams
will take a long time to recover. |
Clarence says that the hillsides on both sides of
Big Creek are toast all the way to the North Fork. Take a look at
the soil in this picture. Then look at the steepness of the terrain
in some of the others. What is going to keep this ash and sediment
out of our pristine Bull Trout spawning streams next spring? Some of
the Bitteroot Valley residents who live along streams that lead from the
catastrophic fires of last summer now have 2 to 4 FEET OF MUD
in their yards washed in from the fire zones.
Silhouettes
 |
Standing like tombstones, these fire
killed trees remind us of the wasted resource and a failed policy |
Charcoal Peak
 |
The steepness of this terrain has made
it difficult for the firefighters, many of whom are from out of
state and not used to the country. It also means severe
erosion in the next few years which will certainly impact the
important Bull Trout spawning streams of Coal Creek and Big Creek |
On his hike Clarence came upon a clear-cut that was
harvested in mid 70's. The 12' to 15' trees in this harvested unit
are unburnt. The Moose fire burned hot right up to the old fire line
placed around the unit and there the fire died.
Patterns of Destruction
 |
See the smoke in middle left. Spot
fires are burning all over making this a very hard fire to
fight. |
On the left in the above picture you can see a
road above the main road. This road was built with hard money
allocated directly by Congress to access timber so that it could be
removed and utilized. The road was built but the timber was never
logged. Now most of it is gone.
Clarence saw other areas in the Big Creek drainage which
underwent a collaborative planning effort with FS and MFMU and greens. We
tried to get some limited logging that would protect the species
etc.. It was never logged and now it too is gone. The
environmentalists won that battle but the habitat that they pretend to
care so much about was the big loser. Clarence describes these
people as having "diarrhea of emotion and constipation of facts."
A Closer Look
 |
This hit and miss pattern is common in
the Moose fire. Many areas were not burned at all but those
that were burned very hot. |
Hotshots
There has been talk on the street that bureaucratic red
tape and environmental restrictions have hampered the firefighting
efforts. No one doubts the bravery or dedication of these men but
the question remains of how much directives and policy priorities from
high up in the Forest Service have effected the outcome. Old
time FS employees and firefighters tell of a different ethic and of
different results.
 |
These are tough, highly
trained and dedicated firefighters. Were they allowed to do
their job? |
|
