Looking to escape the wildfires in Oregon (Seattle, Bellingham: power lines, lawyers)

[rkcarguy]

I honestly wouldn't let it drive me from an area, unless I had related health issues. We bought a HEPA filter for the furnace intake, set it to "fan only" and stayed inside and binged on movies and series online until it dissipated.
I think what is more concerning, is that certain states need to better manage their forests by selective logging, adding firebreaks, and removing slash/underbrush, instead of cowering to these greenie groups that protest the removal of one tree. Its pure stupidity because the trees and animals they think they are saving, and anything else in the way, all burn in the fire. If they don't better manage the forests, it's just fuel for a fire every year when it gets dry and who knows where the next one will burn through a big development or town? Tree's have a finite life span and get dead/hollow inside and turn into dry kindling the older they get.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

I honestly wouldn't let it drive me from an area, unless I had related health issues. We bought a HEPA filter for the furnace intake, set it to "fan only" and stayed inside and binged on movies and series online until it dissipated.
I think what is more concerning, is that certain states need to better manage their forests by selective logging, adding firebreaks, and removing slash/underbrush, instead of cowering to these greenie groups that protest the removal of one tree. Its pure stupidity because the trees and animals they think they are saving, and anything else in the way, all burn in the fire. If they don't better manage the forests, it's just fuel for a fire every year when it gets dry and who knows where the next one will burn through a big development or town? Tree's have a finite life span and get dead/hollow inside and turn into dry kindling the older they get.

Yes, this. Fire is how nature accomplishes renewal.

Logging is a lot better for everyone... The trees, the animals, the air, and the people. It's a resource, and allowing it to burn is a shame and a waste.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

Yes, this. Fire is how nature accomplishes renewal.

Logging is a lot better for everyone... The trees, the animals, the air, and the people. It's a resource, and allowing it to burn is a shame and a waste.

I agree. My uncle served on a reserve fire crew for several years, he was amazed at the amount of animals that would sometimes swarm them when working the front line and how tame some were like they would stand near them as if saying "help us!". Others of course would be running full speed and shoot between the crewmen to get away. He was also saddened when they would find a bunch of burned remains where the fire pushed them into a place where they were trapped or closed in around them.

[NW4me]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

Whidbey Island might be a great suggestion for you. Relatively minimal wildfire/smoke risk. Mild winters, but it is an island in the Puget Sound so there is a typical amount of PNW-style winter. Oak Harbor is the main town there, but other small villages (Coupeville) are easily commutable to Oak Harbor too.

A second recommendation: Port Angeles is out on the Olympic Peninsula and is well known as a retiree spot due to its uniquely warm weather for this area.

Third: Port Townsend is a weird, nice little town with a medical center of some sorts (according to Google).

Did you mean to write Sequim?

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

I honestly wouldn't let it drive me from an area, unless I had related health issues. We bought a HEPA filter for the furnace intake, set it to "fan only" and stayed inside and binged on movies and series online until it dissipated.
I think what is more concerning, is that certain states need to better manage their forests by selective logging, adding firebreaks, and removing slash/underbrush, instead of cowering to these greenie groups that protest the removal of one tree. Its pure stupidity because the trees and animals they think they are saving, and anything else in the way, all burn in the fire. If they don't better manage the forests, it's just fuel for a fire every year when it gets dry and who knows where the next one will burn through a big development or town? Tree's have a finite life span and get dead/hollow inside and turn into dry kindling the older they get.

OMG, I'm agreeing with rkcarguy!


I don't know if WA, or western WA at least, has the problem CA and OR do, of dead trees scattered through the forests,due to drought and/or bark beetles. Sometimes those trees are in locations where it would be expensive and very difficult to access and remove them, but there are plenty that could have been removed easily, as anyone driving north/south on I-5 could see for the last decade or two. It seems to be a budget matter: the Forest Service and Park Svce have had their budgets cut under certain *cough* administrations bent on funding tax breaks for people who don't need them. The result is super-heated wildfires and hundreds of thousands of people left homeless or accommodated in motels after wildfires rip through their communities.

[509]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It seems to be a budget matter: the Forest Service and Park Svce have had their budgets cut under certain *cough* administrations bent on funding tax breaks for people who don't need them. The result is super-heated wildfires and hundreds of thousands of people left homeless or accommodated in motels after wildfires rip through their communities.

Yes, but the Trump Administration restored the budget cuts that Obama instituted. From the Congressional Research Service see page 2.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46557/4

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

OMG, I'm agreeing with rkcarguy!


I don't know if WA, or western WA at least, has the problem CA and OR do, of dead trees scattered through the forests,due to drought and/or bark beetles. Sometimes those trees are in locations where it would be expensive and very difficult to access and remove them, but there are plenty that could have been removed easily, as anyone driving north/south on I-5 could see for the last decade or two. It seems to be a budget matter: the Forest Service and Park Svce have had their budgets cut under certain *cough* administrations bent on funding tax breaks for people who don't need them. The result is super-heated wildfires and hundreds of thousands of people left homeless or accommodated in motels after wildfires rip through their communities.

Logging and managing timber in National Forests would be a revenue SOURCE not a cost.

[509]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

Logging and managing timber in National Forests would be a revenue SOURCE not a cost.

The environmental groups are TOTALLY opposed to any commercial activities on Federal land. They would rather burn down the National Forests and Parks than allow commercial logging.

AND they are being real successful. Currently, we are BURNING down TEN times the forests that we are managing and for the first time in the history of the National Forests we are at NEGATIVE tree growth.

Yep, the environmental movement has moved the National Forests from a sustainable resource, to one that we are losing at a rapid clip.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by 509

The environmental groups are TOTALLY opposed to any commercial activities on Federal land. They would rather burn down the National Forests and Parks than allow commercial logging.

AND they are being real successful. Currently, we are BURNING down TEN times the forests that we are managing and for the first time in the history of the National Forests we are at NEGATIVE tree growth.

Yep, the environmental movement has moved the National Forests from a sustainable resource, to one that we are losing at a rapid clip.

Oh I know that, and I very much agree. I think it's a tragic waste.

[509]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

Oh I know that, and I very much agree. I think it's a tragic waste.

It is more than a tragic waste.

The environmental groups are destroying the National Forests and National Parks for centuries, Not years.