We have just passed an area where it is obvious the firefighters made camp. There were log benches built, log stools, a bunch of cut and split wood, a huge ash pile from their campfire, and now this. Now anyone that understands a fire ladder (no, not the kind you climb) knows why they cut the low limbs off the trees in the area. They were obviously trying to stop the fire's progress in this direction. The question is, why?

You might think that is a silly question, but I'm guessing that most of those reading this story don't know the differences between National Parks, National Forests, Wilderness Areas, International Waters, and moon cheese, but let me explain. When fires start in developed areas (buildings), firefighters put them out. When they start in national forests that are managed by the forest service, a whole complex level of rules and stupidity is applied. Generally, if the fire is started by natural causes (lightning strikes) and isn't threatening anything, the forest service can decide to "let it burn." This is because fire is a natural part of the forest life cycle. Without it the insect populations and brush get out of control and make the forest sick and rife for a cataclysmically damaging fire - ala Yellowstone in the 80s after decades of retarded fire suppression by the clueless forest service. You can read more about Yellowstone here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988

Now on the west coast, these same retarded forest practices used in Yellowstone have been used for decades. This gross mismanagement has led to the now annual mega-fires we see today. We have personally hiked 10s of thousands of miles through the Sierras over the decades, and I can tell you where forests are reasonably healthy and where they are, a disaster waiting to happen. But I digress. The point of this picture is that these trees, the surrounding brush, and all the cool woodwork done in the firefighters camp were done with chainsaws.

"So what," you say (because you still can't tell moon cheese from a banana). In a plain national forest, if a trail needs to be cleared or other work needs to be done, you can use motorized vehicles, chainsaws, choppers, whatever, to assist you. In designated "Wilderness" areas, you cannot. To do work in a wilderness area, you must pack in those huge two-person hand saws, and no advanced industrial equipment can be used whatsoever. No gas-powered anything. The best you can do is use mules to bring in axes, handsaws, and shovels. Everything must be done without machinery.

So let's recap. The fire that burned this area last year was started by a lightning strike and it burned into a designated wilderness area where the grand purpose of the "wilderness" designation is to "let nature take its course." Yet your tax dollars were used to stop the fire from growing into a wilderness area without any structures, to suppress a fire that would have made the area "more healthy," and they illegally used mechanical aid to do it. Huh?

Ya, that got my head-scratching too. I could ramble on about all the things they are doing to make the fire problem worse, but I'll stop there before you switch to watching clown videos.

We continue through the area where the fire break was being made.