Fires to the west, fires to the east, and Sawmill fire in the middle

Page 6 • June 28, 2012, 2012 • Mountain Mail • mountainmailnews.com
letters to the editor
reetings:
On a recent show from one of
he foreign broadcast bureaus,
BC/England, NHK/Japan or
W/Germany there was a photo
f a large hole in a large stretch of
paved highway in China. The
ommentary stated that a minibus
ad just disappeared into this hole.
cientists determined that lack of
roundwater had left subsurface
nd roadway unsupported.
CCTV/China now has a
roadcast outlet in New York (and
n 30 other countries). While I am
ot online perhaps their news cener
is. You may be able to get conirmation
of the story with further
ata and pictures.
Hello water drillers – Goodbye
ntennas
So without Mr. T.S.
Defenseless) beating the drum on
he co-op are there enough on-line
ember connections to keep everyody’s
feet to the fire GO
HARLIE!
Nice to see a long-time combo –
ohn Larson and Linda Ritter –
ogether again.
Always willing to provide a
ood home for the Mountain
ail!
Andrea Blodgett
Lemitar
o the editor:
Sunday I had the honor of
eeting some of the men and
omen who travel far and wide
rom state to state and put their
ives literally on the fire line each
nd every day of summer. While
aking a few photos I talked to
hem at the Socorro Municipal
irport while they waited to be
hipped by air to the Saw Mill Fire
ear Magdalena.
Some had been pulled off the
ire in Ruidoso, and others from
ires burning all across the southest.
The two crews I met were the
arson Hotshot crew and Blue
idge Hotshot crew.
Every last one of them were
overed in ash and dirt, but their
miles were bright white undereath
it all. And they all smiled
nd talked to one another as if they
ere a close family. They were all
ery respectful and even though
ery obviously beat down by days,
eeks and months on the fire line,
hey smiled and answered my
uestions with “yes sir” and “no
sir.”All of them worked to make
the other crew members’ job easier
at the staging area next to the runway
in Socorro.
Every one of them was from
some place different, but they all
had one thing in common. They
all said they absolutely loved what
they do.
When I told them that us regular
people safe at home really
appreciate what they do for us and
our country they all just humbly
shrugged their shoulders and
smiled. I can’t remember when I’ve
felt so good about America’s
young men and women.
It’s that way in the armed services
as well. They are all wonderful
young Americans doing the hardest
jobs in the world with a smile
and shy humility. The armed
forces are dropped into life threatening
circumstances with a gun,
grenades and their wits. Hotshots
are dropped into a burning forest
with a pick/shovel, one gallon of
water and their wits. All face the
possibility of never coming home
again.
When some people tell me that
this generation of kids doesn’t have
a clue and don’t have a good work
ethic, I laugh and tell them to open
their eyes and hearts. Maybe those
people are just too old to remember
how great they were when they
were young, and fail to recognize
just how very wonderful this generation
has turned out to be as well.
I’m not worried one iota. I see
the same bright hope filled eyes in
them that I used to see in the mirror
some 40 years ago. I drove
away from the airport Sunday with
a really comfortable feeling. All of
my life I have worked to comfort
younger people and tell them that
everything is going to be
okay. Today, those kids returned
the favor.
After talking to them with some
doubt and worry for their circumstances,
I can truthfully say that I
am sure everything is going to be
okay.
God’s speed to all of the hotshot
men and women who run into
blazing forest fires while the rest of
us are running away. I wish them
rain, sleep, safety, health and long
happy lives.
Gary Jaramillo
Socorro
An open letter to Tom Vilsack,
Secretary of Agriculture:
I am a long time resident of
Altoona, Iowa, having been my
current home 26 years. I settled
there a number of years after graduating
from Drake University, and
I work in West Des Moines for
Aviva USA as an actuary. As former
governor of the great state of
Iowa, these are places with which
you are familiar.
Prior to coming to Iowa, I
attended Reserve High School in
Reserve, New Mexico and I am
writing because I am upset with the
failure of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture to properly manage
the forests of the west. During the
summers of 1973 and 1974, I
worked as a “Hot Shot” firefighter
for the U.S. Forest Service, helping
to extinguish numerous fires in
the Gila National Forest and in the
Gila Wilderness. From there I was
also sent to fight fires in other areas
of New Mexico.
I am just as familiar with mountains
of Western New Mexico and
Eastern Arizona as you are with
the state of Iowa, and large portions
(conservatively, I estimate 90
percent) of the real estate in that
area is federal or state-owned land
– most of it National Forest, but
also including 790,000 acres designated
as the Gila, Aldo Leopold
and Blue Range wilderness areas.
Last year the Wallow Fire,
which originated in the mountains
near Alpine, Ariz., burned across
the state line and toward the town
of Luna, New Mexico, consuming
538,000 acres of beautiful high
country forests. Now, with the
Whitewater-Baldy fire, which
ignited May 16, 2012, has,
according to a USDA website,
already consumed 240,000 acres
and will likely destroy another
50,000 to 100,000 acres before it
can be stopped from spreading further.
Last summer the Las
Conchas fire burned 156,000
acres near Los Alamos National
Laboratory in northern New
Mexico.
In recent years we have seen an
enormous increase in the number
of mega-sized fires.
Why is this so
When I lived in that area the
forest service actively managed the
forest, allowing ranchers to graze
livestock and lumbermen to selectively
cut and harvest mature trees.
Trees were planted as well as
thinned and these activities provided
a means of livelihood to those
living in the area.
Sometimes fires were allowed to
burn and sometimes fires were set
– as controlled burns – to reduce
the risk of a more dangerous and
more damaging fire during dry
years and dry seasons. It’s always
dry there from the end of May
until the first week of July.
During that dry season fires
were aggressively suppressed to
limit the danger of those living in
the region, to limit the danger to
those putting their lives on the line
to stop the spread of fire, to preserve
the beauty of the environment,
and to protect the valuable
resources the forest possessed.
Between then and now, all that
has changed. Ranchers are no
longer allowed to graze their livestock
on forest land and loggers are
not allowed to harvest timber form
the national forest.
The saw mill in Reserve was
permanently shut down decades
ago.
The underbrush has grown up
to make the forest sometimes inaccessible
and many of the residents
of Reserve have gone on welfare.
In short, the forest used to benefit
its neighbors and the neighbors
were a benefit to the forest. Now,
the fires have wasted a great natural
resource; the rains will erode to
mountainsides, the land that the
government should be proud of is
charred and ugly, and the air as far
away as Albuquerque (over 200
miles away) is full of smoke.
Two fires in two years have
burned nearly one million acres of
beautiful high country forests.
One, the Wallow fire, has the distinction
of being the largest fire in
the modern history of Arizona.
The other, the Whitewater-Baldy
fire, has the distinction of being the
largest fire in the modern history of
New Mexico.
One burned land in the vicinity
of Luna, New Mexico, and the
other burned land in the vicinity of
Mogollon, New Mexico. These
two places - most people don’t
know – are in the same school district,
sending their students to
Reserve High School where I
attended high school.
This is a tragedy to the people
of eastern Arizona and western
New Mexico of epic proportions.
Don’t turn your head and say
nobody lives out there – no harm
done. Put practices into place that
will ensure that this will never happen
again. I beg you.
Lawrence Dykstra
Altoona, Iowa
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