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RumiDude
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PostMon Jun 11, 2018 6:37 am 
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Durango, CO - In an extreme move due to continuing fire danger, the National Forest Service plans to close the entire San Juan National Forest to most public entry starting on Tuesday. The Forest Service will declare a forest-wide Stage 3 fire closure. The closure order will prohibit entry into the San Juan National Forest, including entry by the general public, most administrative entry by Forest Service employees, and most uses authorized under Forest Service permits and contracts. This means that forest campgrounds, day use areas, roads, and trails will be closed, including wilderness areas, and that hiking, dispersed camping, and other recreational activities are prohibited. Exemptions might be granted on a case-by-case basis with a written authorization from the Forest Service, which would include specific requirements for fire prevention. Exemptions must be requested from the appropriate District Ranger (below). Federal, state, or local officers conducting specific duties are exempt. The McPhee Recreation Area Complex boat ramp and marina will likely remain open but no shoreline use will be allowed.
Link I don't think I have ever heard of something like this before. Rumi

"This is my Indian summer ... I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all."
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jinx'sboy
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PostMon Jun 11, 2018 6:45 am 
It is nearly unheard of in the wetter NW. However, it does happen in the National Forests of the Southwest, although not on a regular basis. I remember riding around in the 1/2 million acre Gila Wilderness, sometime in the :mid 70s, making people leave. This is a big deal. The San Juan NF is a big recreation forest. This closure would close the summer activities of the Telluride ski are, for instance. A lot of people affected!

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Schroder
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PostMon Jun 11, 2018 7:06 am 
It happened in our state in August 1967. All forests were closed in the Cascades.

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RichP
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PostMon Jun 11, 2018 7:15 am 
A necessary move as it only takes one careless individual or a dry lightning strike to start a forest fire apocalypse with conditions as they are presently.

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thunderhead
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PostMon Jun 11, 2018 10:38 am 
I saw similar blanket closures happen during a huge fire season in the already very dry Coronado Nat forest in southern AZ... I think at the end of the 2011 dry season if I remember correctly, closing almost everything until the monsoon rains started again in about a month.

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thunderhead
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PostMon Jun 11, 2018 11:52 am 
Good news though... it looks like there may be an early and strong north american monsoon onset this year, aided by a potent hurricane currently off mexico but eventually dissipating with its remnants headed into NM/AZ/CO. Hopefully that can dump plenty of rain on the San Juans before lightning triggered blazes grow as well...

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Joey
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PostTue Jun 12, 2018 5:59 pm 
I've been doing a map for the fires in SW Colorado. Red triangle = MODIS hotspot Orange square = VIIRS hotspot The black/white dots are clickable weather stations. Magenta line is the "proclaimed" boundary of the San Juan National Forest which is now closed. La Plata County (Durango) has closed all its rec land.
View larger size in new window

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MyFootHurts
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PostWed Jun 13, 2018 7:38 pm 
don't they have lots of dead trees there because of some kind of invasive beetle?

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Ski
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PostWed Jun 13, 2018 11:09 pm 
The problem has existed for years. Unless I am mistaken the two options are: (A) clearcutting or (B) burning it. No doubt somebody here knows of some other option. wink.gif Beetle Kill Rate in Colorado Catastrophic / Denver Post PUBLISHED: January 14, 2008 at 2:03 am | UPDATED: May 7, 2016 at 4:28 pm

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Pyrites
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PostThu Jun 14, 2018 12:15 am 
Schroder wrote:
It happened in our state in August 1967. All forests were closed in the Cascades.
1967 was a dry summer in N Idaho too. http://sandpoint.com/community/history-sundance-fire.php Obviously there’ve been bigger fires in recent years. Still 16 miles in 9 hours, in timber is quite a run. Smoke column was impressive. I remember seeing an escorted (State troopers?) D-9 being hauled up U.S. 95. Two semi’s to haul one unit. Big Cat for the mountains. Made D-8’s look medium sized. Best. Pyrites

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treeswarper
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PostThu Jun 14, 2018 6:13 am 
Ah, Ski...yup, it has been going on for years. A probably boring story for everybody but I'll torture them anyway... A seminar was held in Steamboat on this topic the year the last space shuttle crashed. The Forest Service sponsored it and they imported logging systems folks from the PNW including some skyline loggers to educate locals on what could be done on steep ground instead of using spendy helicopters. The ski resorts seemed most interested at that time. After that Vail, CO paid to have an Oregon logger move his equipment from the coast range to Vail. They did some yarder logging around the town to make it less burnable. But, like everywhere, logging is too controversial and from what I hear, not much else was done on the steeper hillsides--it was more of a small demonstration project. I'm also thinking that CO only had one sawmill at the time which also is a limiting factor, not to mention that the timber was not in very good condition. The Oregon logger had an adventure and I guess moving his equipment across so many states, with all the permits required was even more of an adventure. Other places cut and chipped dead trees, but that doesn't happen for free and trees and snags still are cut which is a bad thing just like it is bad here. So it burns, as predicted. Insurance companies will have a lot of payments to make on the spendy homes that burn.

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coldrain108
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PostThu Jun 14, 2018 10:00 am 
treeswarper wrote:
Insurance companies will have a lot of payments to make on the spendy homes that burn.
and here we cut to the ACTUAL problem. No issue with burning, it has happened for millennia, but now there are knuckleheads building houses in the burn zone. Just another by-product of the avarice so prevalent in our culture. Make a living, not a killing. naughty.gif The words mean exactly what they mean.

Since I have no expectations of forgiveness, I don't do it in the first place. That loop hole needs to be closed to everyone.
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treeswarper
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PostThu Jun 14, 2018 12:55 pm 
imagine this! from npr

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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Ski
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PostThu Jun 14, 2018 5:08 pm 
416 fire now 32,076 acres 06/14/18 @ 17:33 MDT fun with math: estimated cost to treat forest land to minimize damage by wildfire: $4000.00 estimated cost of fighting 416 fire (since June 1): $13,600,000.00 (current estimates of containment vary from 15% - 18%) number of acres that could have been treated with $13.6 million dollars: 3400

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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