Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Forest Fire Breaks out at Fort Stevens State Park

Two days after I spent an enjoyable day killing time near Astoria while 3 cats got dental care, a forest fire broke out near Social Security Beach in Fort Stevens State Park.   I believe that beach is one I photographed from Area D, after leaving the weapons battery part of the park for the beach.  It's where everybody sits or drives their trucks onto the beach and fishes for salmon from lawn chairs.  I think that's the beach they mean.
This beach, I think.  

The fire is now 65% contained and has burned about 400 acres.  Fires are burning all over the west.

Here is a link to the initial news story about the fire, when it began on August 3rd.

The above link will eventually probably not function.

The photo shown in that news link seems to show this same area, from this photo I took from the batteries, out toward the Columbia River.


The fire has also burned the beach grass and closed parking lots near the south jetty.  I walked out to the beach from the jetty parking lot through those sands, now probably scorched.

This is that trail, looking back towards the parking lot. I wonder what it looks like now.
I remember when walking back to the parking lot people passing me headed for the beach with cigarettes hanging from their mouths.   How could people be that careless?  Smoking in your own car, that's one thing, but.....
I remember when driving the roads to the various beach access points how brown  the little pine trees lining the road looked and pines are evergreens.  I guess they were pines.  But they should not have been looking brown like that.  I figured they were victims of the drought or maybe disease.

Gosh darn it, I hate to hear of a fire in that area.  Glad it's almost put out.  There are so many fires burning.  Tonight also on the news, said 160 miles of highway 84 in eastern Oregon are now closed due to a massive fire, that went from zero acres to 7000 very quickly there. No more campfires allowed in the woods, even at campgrounds, I think I heard, too.

I don't like to think about the beautiful area I just visited burning like that.  There are elk herds and deer and so many animals out there too.

11 comments:

  1. I am so sorry. We get bush fires every summer in most states. The damage is huge, and the loss of wildlife and habitat breaks my heart. We often lose people too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The news often covers your fires, EC and they can make the ones here seem small. But the habitat damage, the wildlife deaths and suffering and that of people killed or who lose their homes is huge. Later on, areas that burned, are primed for landslides with any slope and rain.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:14 AM

    Pine leaf beetle kills the trees? I heard less than normal cold winters had not killed them of in years of late.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Going to look it up, Andrew, because I wondered about disease, and we have lots of bugs in Oregon.

      Delete
    2. I found a website showing the trees of Oregon, including Pines, to first try to ID the trees, but then decided to email the website writer, an Oregon State University person. He responded. He said they are likely Lodgepole pines and that they are know to be affected by salt water in the air which can turn the ends of their needles brown. There you have it!

      Delete
  3. I've been hearing about fires in Oregon and wondered how they might be affecting you. Fires are one of most fierce things known to man. I hate to hear about when they happen, but in most cases, they remind us that Nature is always more powerful than we are. Here's hoping that the fire will soon be out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scary stuff. A friend of mine is cavalier about the dangers she used to face but that doesn't reduce the impact on the poor animals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Was she a wildland firefighter, Darla?

      Delete
  5. Fire is deversating it come way too quickly and destroys everything in its path.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does, WA and then takes so long for recovery.

      Delete

Round Up

Today is cat round up for tomorrow's five spots.  Two more came up from the vet student in Harrisburg late this morning.  Over 60 fixed ...