West Coast drought, heat wave and forest fires are the
latest proof of man-made global climate change.
Only there is nothing new about them. They have plagued the
Pacific Coast so often for so long they have become a fact of life, long before
the so-called effects of Global Climate Change supposedly started.
When Mark Twain accidently caused a massive fire forest fire
during his trip to Nevada in the 1870s, forest fires had already had a long
history.
One assessment shows such fires occurred in 1774, 1777, 1783, 1786, 188, 1793, 1796. 1801, 1805, 1811, 1816, 1820, 1823, 1826, 1831, 1837, 1849, 1855, 1867, 1887 and 1897.
But to hear the whacko science writers from the New York
Times and other liberal media, the current crop of fires – and their associated
weather conditions – are a sign from God (they don’t believe in God) that the
end is near.
But before you go off to purchase ascension robes for you
and your cattle, be aware that these events – which terrible catastrophes are
hardly the stuff NYT and green science is selling you, and that similar,
sometimes nearly identical events have transpired before, clearly caused by
natural conditions which may or may not have to do with the natural warming
trend the earth has been undergoing for the last 40,000 years.
What Green People are selling in a modern day version of
snake oil, more designed to milk grants out of a gullible federal government than
to actually prove the world is coming to an end. Media such as the always
opportunist NYT has its own reasons for selling this snake oil, but nothing
honest I’m sure.
Even their own archives dispute much of what they claim in
their exaggerated diatribes about the effects of manmade global warming.
I did not use their archives, but found hundreds of accounts
about the threat of forest fires dating back to the 1800s – before which printed
accounts were scarce.
I limit my examples to the first half of the 20th Century –
a period which would have been least affected by so-called Global Climate
change, and yet suffered events so similar as today’s they might have occurred
yesterday, making it clear manmade climate change isn’t the cause of the
current events, mother nature is.
In some stories talking about more current events were reference
historic fires to the past – such as the historic fires of 1887 which almost
mirrors today’s events in that 7,500 square miles of a drought-stricken
northwest burned and which farm crops were ruined and grass lands scalded.
The turn of the century was not without its Green People either,
only they were selling a different snake oil back then. The Sierra Club was
formed in part in 1892 to explore the problems associated with frequent forest
fires in the northwest. It’s president, John Mule, sang a different tune from
the Global Warming agenda today’s Sierra Club sells, and got down to the root
causes of disastrous fires, which included poor forest management and the need
in California for an adequate irrigation system.
His assessment follows more modern views of forest management which claim Native Americans cleared much of the forests of fire creating underbrush. Like Mule, these purveyors of Native American myth, blame the Europeans for the demise of the Northwestern forests.
This somewhat racist accusation against western culture ignores their own evidence that such fires routinely took place in that part of the country long before white settlers ever got there.
Mule was something of a crank and a precursor to Al
Gore, blaming settlement, railroads, and cutting down of trees for the plight
of forests. He clearly did not have coal burning power plants or automobiles to
blame as the green people do today. As a crank, Mule wanted the forest and
glades left to sheep herders, and he opening attack mills that cut lumber for
construction of homes. He said society had a war on trees, and recalled other
historic fires from which smoke billowed so high as to blot out the sun.
One of the first recorded northwest forest disasters
occurred in 1900 which swept through the dense forests of Oregon and Washington,
resulting in the loss of 40 billion feet of trees for lumber or about 23
percent of the available stock.
The year 1910 less overall damage to lumber with only six
billion lumber trees destroyed, but the
fires spread across many states that includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho and
Montana. The heaviest losses of trees was in the Coeur d’Alere forest in Idaho
which lost about one billion feet of trees dedicated to lumber although the
fires spread over 450,000 acres.
Clearwater County saw the loss of one billion feet of lumber
trees over a 300,000 acre area that burned.
Helena National Forest saw the loss of 500,000 feet of
lumber trees, Cabinet Forest, 400 million Lulo forest, 300 million, all in one
great fire that swept through them all.
Fire fighters could not penetrate the burning areas because
of lack of trails. The make things worse, a hurricane struck the coast and
caused the fires to advance faster and forced firefighters to seek shelter.
Forest fires also swept through Northern California causing
then President Taft to send in the U.S. Army to help fight the blaze. This
started in the Eureka Saw Mill and was so intense it burned its way down 150
feet of shaft in the nearby Hidden Treasure mine. Flames raged between Michigan
Bluff and Lake Tahoe over two counties, raging for more than a week. Charred
bodies were found in the fires wake.
Although there have been forest fires raging throughout the
northwest every year, some years stand out more than others.
In 1915, forest fires were reported up and down the west
coasts from Mexico to Vancouver. Smoke was so thick over Puget Sound, several
boats ran aground or crashed into docks. Out of control blazes – starting by
lightning – ripped through forests in Oregon and Idaho.
In 1916, forest fires accounted for the loss of 25 million
feet of timbe trees. There were 1,176 fires in the National Parks of Oregon, Washington
and Alaska. More than 10,000 acres of open country also burned.
Most of these fires
were believed to have been caused by campers.
In 1919, 30,000 acres of forest burned in Washington State,
including ranches with many other similar fires reported up and down the coast.
For a time, a fire near Blue Lakes was completely out of control.
One of the worst years in recorded history was in 1924 when
more than 52 people died in forest fires reported from Mexico to Canada. In one
case, 35 people – mostly families – were trapped by the fries in Pend d’Orielle
County. A family of six died near Trapper Creek, Idaho where fire burned
thousands of acres of forest and grass lands.
Blazes set to flame timber in Eastern Washington, Southern
Idaho and in British Columbia, cut off settlers living there.
There was a huge loss of timber both in the U.S. and Canada.
Logging camps in Washington and Oregon were destroyed.
Further south, flames swept through the Santa Barbara Forest
near LA for a week.
In 1928, out of control fires swept through the San
Bernadino Mountains in the south, while in Washington State, a forest fire made
a swath one mile wide through a forest there. People evacuated Puget Sound as the
result of another fire near Kitsap lake. A third major fire was near Morgan
Marsh. Reports claim fire fighters had to fight through a ring of fire to get
free.
Innumerable fires plagued Washington, Oregon and California
in 1929, causing $10 million (significantly more in today’s money) in damage
and resulted in 150,000 acres of burned forest. Fires threatened wealthy properties
in Woodside, CA, and sept through La Honda Canyon.
More than 10,000 people were employed to fight forest fires a
national park forest in Washington which was fueled by high winds, and eventually
burned more than 60,000 acres.
Many other fires elsewhere were reported as out of control
for days.
The year 1932 saw the loss of one billion feet of timber
trees in forest fires in Oregon – one third of the available stock at the time.
These fires did not only destroy trees, but bridges, roads, houses and
equipment.
Although there were also large fires in 1933, 1934 and 1935,
the forest fires of 1936 stand out because these occurred in November and under
freezing temperatures.
The area had suffered an extensive dry spell, and one of the
state foresters called the first “the greatest threat in the history of timber
country.”
Just in one day, fire burned 8,000 acres. Fog was so thick
it grounded airplanes. Lakes were frozen over in ice. Mountain areas had snow storms.
In Oregon, nine deaths were reported. There was more than $3
million (Depression era dollars) in lost of timber. Skeletons of buildings were
found in the wake for the fire.
In California, dozens of fires plagued the state with an
estimated loss of $1 million per acre – with a total of 300,000 acres burned.
The 1938 forest fire season almost mirrors the season the
west coast is seeing today. It was accompanied by massive heat wave and a
nagging drought.
There more than 200 forest fires reported three states –
believed to have been started by lightning strikes.
The 68 forest fires in Northern California were so remote
that it took fire fighters 10 to 15 hours to reach them. Food and supplies had
to be dropped to them by airplane.
Mount Shasta area had
35 fires, Feather River, 11 fires, and many other fires were scatted through
the Sierra Nevada area. More than 5,000 acres burned in about 60 scattered
fires in Washington State.
The year 1940 was another bad one for the West Coast when
hundreds of fires lit up the coast from Mexico to Alaska. There were massive fires
in Montana, Idaho, Washington, California and Oregon.
Washington State alone
had 700 fires. A huge blaze near San Diego wiped out 8,000 acres of trees.
As with today’s problems in the Northwest, the 1941 season brought
hundreds of fires, a drought and a massive heatwave. Nine deaths were reported
in Oregon and Washington. More than 50 fires hit a forest near Salem, Or. There
were more than 200 fires in Washington.
Snoqualmie Forest had more than 30 fires, the worst of which
burned 5,00 acres and force air drops of supplies to beleaguered fire fighters.
Sage brush also burned as did grain and wheat crops.
Wind driven flames drove 1,500 people from their homes near
the Santa Ana Mountain. There were other blazes throughout Orange County. An
out of control fire swept through a portion of LA County.
Big Basin near San Francisco saw fire destroy 19,000 acres
of trees.
This, of course, is hardly an exhaustive list, just a few
highlights of a history that shows the fires we are witnessing today in Northwest
are hardly unusual – and there are as many or even more examples of this pattern
during the second half of the 20th century, as old tales tell us there were
before the start of the 20th century, hardly attributed to manmade climate
change.
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