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Post by paula53 on Jun 28, 2016 10:37:11 GMT -8
The Plumas and Tahoe national forests are banning campfires already. Doesn't matter if you have a permit. It isn't July yet, but the dry heat, and the dead and dying trees are a forest fire waiting to happen. Please be careful out there. Think twice before striking that match.
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Post by hikerchick395 on Jul 5, 2016 17:17:46 GMT -8
Inyo, too, I believe
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Post by paula53 on Jul 13, 2016 14:10:15 GMT -8
Yosemite National Park just posted a no fire ban above 6,000 feet. Except in a designated campground. Sierra twig stoves are banned.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Jul 13, 2016 15:41:45 GMT -8
It's actually the lower, drier, areas of the park where they've impose the ban. While I expect as the snowmelt retreats the ban will start climbing as well. "Current Fire Restrictions Stage 1 fire restrictions are in effect. Where: Below 6,000 feet except in frontcountry campgrounds and picnic areas What: Fires are only permitted in portable stoves using pressurized gas, liquid fuel, propane, or alcohol (including tablet/cube stoves). Wood fires (including twig stove fires) and charcoal fires are prohibited. Smoking is not allowed below 6,000 feet except in campgrounds, picnic areas, and buildings in which smoking is normally allowed." www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/firerestrictions.htmNot a good sign at all. Last winter I thought things would turn out better. |
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Jul 15, 2016 10:12:12 GMT -8
Fires are always banned in Sierra above 10,000' (sometimes 9,000 IIRC). Happily, I seldom if ever feel the need for one. I only get upset when they ban the alky stove. Usually where we camp there's not much to catch on fire.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Jul 15, 2016 11:30:29 GMT -8
Yes but the standard high elevation campfire ban is about resource retention for the ecosystem and less about wildfire risk. They're preserving organic material for nutrient recycling through the bio system.
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Post by swimswithtrout on Jul 15, 2016 18:53:51 GMT -8
Much of CO is experiencing the same conditions and have begun instituting fire bans as well. Two months ago we had a ~ 150-200% above normal snow pack. Two months of record breaking heat and little to no precip and the hills look like mid/late Aug., not mid July.
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rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Jul 16, 2016 12:25:16 GMT -8
Yes but the standard high elevation campfire ban is about resource retention for the ecosystem and less about wildfire risk. They're preserving organic material for nutrient recycling through the bio system. That's why I don't worry about the alky stove, and why the wood stoves are never legit up there. |
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almostthere
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Post by almostthere on Jul 18, 2016 8:45:57 GMT -8
The parks exempt alcohol stoves from the ban, but Sierra National Forest does not. Sometimes the NFs can be oddly more strict than the park service, for some unknown reason.
The parks, on the other hand, never seem to completely ban fires -- in Yosemite it's below 9400 feet and above 6000 feet, where they are allowed. The SEKI park complex on the other hand has differing campfire rules depending on what drainage you are in, and ban them altogether at poor overused places like Hamilton Lake or Pinto Lake (the animals there are horribly habituated too, deer will eat your clothes and gear if it's salty).
The thing is -- campfires are completely unnecessary, yet they engender such feelings in people that they are more than happy to risk $5000 fines to have one, even on really warm evenings where there is no cooking or warming needs. And so I fear that there will be plenty more forest fires, since everyone assumes they will be able to control the fire, and so many times they figure out that the drought has created horrible conditions where it's just too dangerous...
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