EB and Glacier fire?

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Looking at some of the images not all clear cuts. They did try to leave some trees in spots, not for esthetics but because the firefighters said they didn't need to take them all down. It does look different and of course the fire is still burning (just not expanding to the north and east as had been the case last week) and a couple thousand acres of the wilderness just south of the IWI are now blackened. But you are right--that is much better than the alternative to be sure. 50 years from now (assuming no more fires in that area), no one will really know what happened there. And 50 years is a blink in the eye of the forest cycle.

The forecast for the latter part of this week is for our first "rainy" day in several months--yea!! We are all hoping that the forecast does indeed come true! We just finished August with .07 inches of rainfall. We have had 5 months in a row with less than 1/2 inch of rainfall, with 4 of the last 5 months with less than 1/4 inch!!! We could have given Phoenix a good run for the money this year.
 
Glad you are finally getting rain, Mike. Spokane will end up with both their hottest AND driest summer ever, counting June, July, and August. But the first week of September looks to be wet and cool. Sure hope you get that kind of weather too.
 
I went through Maria's Pass on September 2, and it was surprisingly uneventful. The smoke had mostly cleared. a lot of trees near the track had been cut, but no more than a railroad might do anyway, just to avoid the possibility of trees falling on the track. Plus, because of the steep and rugged topography, you couldn't see much burnt area from the train.

What really struck me was how shockingly low the streams are.

Bottom line, from trackside, Marias Pass is still beautiful.

The train wasn't even very late, only an hour late into Minot.
 
While the fires are not out, the weekend rain (and even little snow above 6500 feet), did knock down the activity to the point that most are just smoldering and not actively burning. This may change somewhat if the forecast for the next two weeks is accurate, as we are supposed to go back to a warm and dry pattern. We do not believe we will see conditions like we did in August, but several of the larger fires could once again become active. Normally, once we get into September and October the cooler temps help reduce the fire danger, but it was so dry this summer-as stated earlier, the driest summer ever recorded in NW MT, that no one is writing the fire season's obituary just yet.
 
Glad to hear you got some of the same rain and high-elevation snow that we did. We are in the same situation, where the big fire is by no means "out", but the hot spots are all in the interior of the blackened area now. The perimeter is almost fully secured or at least blackened and out.

Tough it was a little unnerving last week to drive through the fire to town and see still-smoking logs and stumps, within about 100 yards of US highway 395, in an area that had burned over two weeks previously. When the fires are that large and numerous, firefighting resources are concentrated on perimeters where there is danger to homes and infrastructure. Mopping-up of the interior hot spots can wait a long, long time (sometimes till winter puts them out).
 
Interesting archived C-Span book discussion from a Cascades Smoke jumper. A retired jumper from the Missoula base was there.



SEPTEMBER 26, 2015 Book Discussion onSmokejumperJason Ramos talked about his book, Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America’s Most Select Airborne Firefighters, about his life as a smokejumper and the changes in fighting wildfires…
 
Thanks for the link. What a well written piece about a place I love. I am not sure I will ever get there but I am glad it survived unscathed. Such a pleasant piece of new in a world full of gloom and doom.
 
I hope that this means that the IWI is pretty much safe from fires for the next 20 or 30 years, given the reduction in the fuel/dry wood around it. I have never gotten the opportunity to stay there but I have seen it in the early morning light a time or two as the EB rolls by. I usually save money by staying at the Glacier Highland in W Glacier. It is not in the same class, at all, but nice people run it and I love walking to the lake from there.

Chaz said:
Gene Poon at T.O. Has posted an article from the Great Falls paper re "the miracle of the Izaak-Walton inn's survival"--the fire having gotten 1 mile away. Pictures too. Oct 3
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/my-montana/2015/09/24/izaak-walton-inn-fire/72781152/

TO link Oct4
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3858415

Chaz
Click to expand...
 
No I would NOT assume that at all. While the fire crews did a great job clearing literally tens of thousands of trees from around Essex, the Inn is still in a heavily forested area. I was just there a couple weeks ago (we enjoyed our favorite dessert there--Huckleberry cobbler with a scoop of Huckleberry ice cream) after the Sheep Fire had settled down and the number of trees removed represent a tiny fraction of the forest land. Most of the trees removed were to the east of the IWI along and just to the south of the BNSF main line.

Having lived in the Pacific NW now for a number of years I can vouch for the fact that burning coals can travel very long distances during intense fires, so while the chances of being overrun by a modest fire event like the Sheep Fire are lessened, a major conflagration as we have seen in this area in the past would, in all likelihood, take the IWI out, along with dozens of other structures. We need to keep in mind the Sheep Fire was small as fires go, perhaps 5000 acres at its height. I remember standing on the top of Big Mtn just north of Whitefish a few years ago watching the 71,000 acre Moose Fire (with a 40,000 foot smoke plume) wipe out several entire mountains worth of timber in a matter of a few days.
 
Trees and brush grow pretty quick especially when the ground is fertilized and prepped by fire. Remember to plants in this area wild fires are a "normal" thing, and they are very able to regrow. Keeping human habitation fire resistive is not easy and is a ongoing maintenance task. While the Izaac Walton is in reasonably good shape the rest of Essex has problems.

Those beautiful pine trees in Essex should be at least 30 feet from structures, 150 feet away if its a steep uphill to the structure. https://gallery.mailchimp.com/d4b34ba20c75e8b5e74ad703d/files/30_Days_30_Ways_Wildfire_Day_8.pdf.

When there is a fire the priorities for firefighters are life hazard - significant cultural/historical artifacts - significant environmental features - significant economic generators (industry-stores-timberland) - private homes - other "no cash value" land, more or less in that order. Most of the time wildland firefighters will not commit to going down road with no second exit, too much risk of being cut off (It can happen quickly, in Washington one firefighter lost his life and several others were burned when the wind shifted unexpectedly and they were trapped). A lot of the residential area of Essex and the cabin area south/west of the the tracks will be written off as too risky to commit firefighters when the flames come.

BNSF and the Forest Service spent a lot of money on the Essex area this season, lets hope they will recognize (and the general public will support the idea) that there needs to be ongoing maintenance to minimize hazards.
 
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