Some of my favorite places are gone for a long long time.

[joeldavid]

I can hardly stand to watch right now as over 300,000 acres of one of my favorite areas burns. It's been months since I spent much time 4 wheeling or flyfishing because of severe fire danger and forest closures. Now when I final do get to go back the nations largest stand of ponderosa pine will be ash. Thankfully my family no longer owns a home in Showlow and all of my friends have safely evacuated.

Be carefull it's dry out there,

Joel

p.s. On a lighter note tomarrow I'm doing my spacers and shackles and some rancho 9000's

[EricsXJ]

Ya that is unfortunate

I am a strong believer in acting responsible when in the outdoors. I never litter, always tread lightly, leave no trace, etc... But its funny how the "tree hugger" enviro-wackos attack logging, and basically any recreational use in the forests, and yet it can all get wiped out by one fire, wether it was started by man or not! I DO blame these enviro-wackos (in part) for these forests going up in smoke. There is far too much dead wood and brush in there, but no you can't touch anything because some damn spotted owl might want to lay an egg on it! They want to "save the forests" by closing trails and access to us all, but by doing so they are litterally adding fuel to these fires. These people are idiots. And whats worse, the fire season has just begun!

[joeldavid]

The handcuffs that have been placed on the logging industry and forest service have been called in to question by just about everyone involved with this fire publicly. I hope that the television audiance are getting the message. Poorly managed forests mixed with several drought years has created a time bomb. It's not July yet and our monsoons won't come, if they come, until late August. If anyone knows how to rain dance now would be a good time to speak up.

Joel