W.I.S.E. Fire Tracking

There were multiple smokes visible to the north today from Crater Lake Rim Drive. I assume this was one of them. There was also a small fire in a ravine on the side of Garfield Peak in full view of Crater Lake Lodge. I noticed the smoke a little after noon from the parking area. The smoke disappeared after a few minutes and I concluded it must have been dust from a rock fall. About an hour later, however, NP personnel were present, the trail up Garfield was closed and a helicopter was used to douse the fire. Water was flown in from the south somewhere, not from Crater Lake.

Could have been, but also there have been multiple lightning strikes in SW Oregon in the last 24 hours, so it could have been a new fire.

Glad to hear the Garfield fire was doused. Rapid response with air attack is expensive, but not as expensive as not doing it and allowing a fire to grow. That message is starting to sink in.

Crater Lake NP has a terrible fuel problem from years of beetle-related mortality. They need a forest restoration program, but they are handicapped by a hands-off-the-wilderness attitude. In fact, the High Cascades are not wilderness but have been heavily used by human beings for thousands of years. The heritage of CLNP is one the most precious aspects of the Park, but it has been downplayed by bogus theories of “natural balance.”

This is the dilemma. Should we protect and maintain all the resources of the Park through traditional human stewardship, or should we allow those resources to be degraded because of bad history and bogus ecological theories? The politics of “naturalness” and “wilderness” confound active stewardship and are harming the very resources the policies purport to protect. Irony is poisoning our National Parks.