Wildfires

This morning, heavy smoke fills the air around my house and chokes the expansive valley beyond.  The smell of burnt wood is strong.  A red sun will soon rise in the east.   At present, some 24 wildfires are active in Montana.  The largest and most ferocious fires are not in the mountainous western half of Montana, they are, instead, savaging the broken lands and Big Open of our eastern half.

One of those fires, the Lodgepole Complex, has scorched 270,723 acres since first flaring to life on the 19^th of July.  Located some 52 miles from Jordan, Montana, that fire scoured through entire ranches, killing livestock and leaving only an occasional island of grass behind.  When punched forward by the wind, there is no stopping such fires.

Jordan, for those interested in our more sketchy history, was the small town at center of the Montana Freeman standoff of 1996.  That event saw a small virulently anti-government armed militia engage in a months-long standoff with the federal agents and local law enforcement agencies.

Oddly, what I most recall from the Freeman standoff, is the terrible haircuts sported by all of the local men whenever they appeared in interviews on national news outlets.  Apparently the same very bad barber cut hair for the entire local population.

Closer to home, three fires are burning within a dozen miles of my cabin.  The largest of those, the Park Creek Fire, has burned through 4,133 acres since being ignited by lightning on the 15^th of July.  So far, these fires have clawed slowly through heavy timber and rugged mountains.

The smoke outside my house in more than a reminder of the fires.  The smoke is a reminder that we are shaped by the landscape and the weather surrounding us.  I cannot imagine what a first-time visitor to the area would think if confronted by this.  The pall and smell would likely be both overwhelming and frightening.

I don’t like this, but I understand the fires as a natural part of living here.  Here in the natural rain shadow, we are shaped by an arid climate and the expected occurrence of wildfires as much as we are shaped by the beautiful clear trout streams and the snow-tented mountains.

--Mitchell Hegman