FIRE IS POWERFUL & DEMANDS RESPECT. I grew up with my Dad fighting forest fires. He still does to this day, even though he retired from full time forestry work. Growing up, my Dad taught me a proper respect for the forest, the rules set in place to protect it, and the importance of being responsible with campfires.
This year has been a historic year for forest fires. A few were caused by natural means, but sadly a great majority were human caused. Where I live in the great state of Colorado, we have had record breaking fires and smoke. The interesting fact in regards to this is that we had record snow last year which had wiped out our drought. However, the spring and summer brought us very little rain. It was basically non-existent. This resulted in drought coming back worse than ever.
The goal of this blog post is to go over a few ways we can respect the forest and do our part to keep forest fires from starting in the first place.
1. Follow Campfire Guidelines
If you are going to have a campfire, as long as they are not banned, you need to responsible for that campfire.
- Before you start it, rake around the campfire and rid the area of any brush, pine cones, etc that can easily catch fire from an ember and spread.
- If a fire grate is not provided, make sure your campfire area has rocks stacked around it high as to not give the fire opportunity to jump from your campfire to the area around it.
- Never leave the fire unattended. Keep a close eye on the fire. Once you start the campfire, you are responsible for it.
- If embers jump out of the campfire, stomp them out.
- Finally, drown the fire. This is the only way to get it out. Don’t assume putting dirt on top of the fire puts it out. That just provides a warm bed for the fire to burn underneath. Drown the fire and stir it and make sure that all the hots spots are out before leaving the campsite.
2. Respect the Rules
The rules have been put in place for a reason. If there is a fire ban in place, it is just as much to protect you as it is to protect the forest. If you disregard the rules, cause a fire, and they link it back to you, you will be held responsible. Also remember your actions affect more than just you, they affect the forest, as well as people’s homes within the forest. You need to trust the experts and respect the bans. The fire bans are put in place because the forestry experts have decided that the risks of allowing campfires is too great due to drought conditions. There are levels to fire bans depending on the level of drought. This year a huge part of it as well was due to limited resources during this global pandemic.
3. Be a part of the solution not the problem.
As Smoky Bear Says-“ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES.” Yes there are fires that are caused by natural means like lightening. But most fires are man caused. And we have a responsibility to protect the forest. As my Dad always said, “FIRE IS POWERFUL AND DEMANDS RESPECT.” Yes we can break the rules. But should we? Is that S’more really worth it? NEVER! We can camp without campfires when fire bans are in place. We can choose to follow the rules.
If there is one thing this year has taught us is that the intensity and destruction fo forest fires is on the increase. Let’s do our part to prevent them. As we wander into adventures, choose to be responsible as you recreate.
