balzaccom
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Waiting for spring...
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Post by balzaccom on Sept 14, 2016 7:46:29 GMT -8
We've come to a sad realization about our summer backpacking trips to the Sierra. It used to be that one the most dependable elements of those trips was the deep blue skies that we would find above us. There is something about being up at 10,000 feet that helps make those skies truly memorable.
But we're beginning to think that they may well be a thing of the past. Over the past few summers, those skies have almost always been smoggy with the smoke of forest fires, either near or far. You can see this as you explore our photos. What was once blue, blue skies and views that went on for tens of miles are now dingy skies, and the distant peaks are barely visible through the smoke.
It's sad. And given the state of our trees (Will they ever recover from the combination of drought and beetle infestations?) those vistas of deep forests that cover the lower slopes like a blanket may also be a memory that we can only tell our children about. Or show them our photos from years ago.
One slightly happier note is that we noticed both blue skies and healthy trees in our last trip up to the Caribou Wilderness, just to the north of the Sierra--as in the photo at right.
It was lovely. And it made us just a little sad to realize that we hadn't seen either skies or trees like that in a number of years in the Sierra.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2016 9:01:42 GMT -8
The wildlands fire fighting force no longer suppress forest fires. Resources are put into stopping a wild fire from burning properties.
A healthy pine forest is considered to be 25 to 30 trees per acre.
Past fire suppression has allowed pine trees to grow too close together, which promotes the beetle infestation, and allows forest floor debris to build up. It has been discovered that letting the fires burn, the forest recover in a better off state then continuing with the policy of fire suppression.
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davesenesac
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Post by davesenesac on Sept 14, 2016 9:49:43 GMT -8
As a long time Sierra Nevada backpacking enthusiast I quite agree with your assessment B. Not just the reminicing imagination of we older California folk. Galen Rowell had also commented on the worsening air clarity over his lifetime. The below map link shows twice as much has been burning over the last 25 years versus my younger adult decades in the 70s thru 80s.
There have always been summer wild fires in the Sierra Nevada due to thunderstorm lightning however such storms tend to be over higher timberline elevations with sparse trees that infrequently burned into lower and middle forests. Likewise in other regions of central and southern California, only the limited higher mountainous areas had many lightning caused fires so much of those parts of the state with much oak savanna and chaparral tended to not have fires for long periods of decades. All that has changed with the coming of Western man.
And in recent decades vast increasing population and growth, especially in fire prone regions has lead to many additional human caused fires. The real estate industry/financial/banking companies and their political allies continues pushing endless growth into environmentally sensitive, hot fire prone regions like Sierra foothills and Coastal Range chaparral. To this native Californian the sad changes to the state's environment in my lifetime have been appalling.
Additionally to smoke is urban air pollution. As population grows so does pollution from a list of sources despite drastic measures to reduce such. A snippet below about where much of the High Sierra air pollution comes with as winds blow from west to east.
Snippet from below link:
valleycan.org/fact_sheets_info/sjv_fact_sheet.php.html
The (San Joaquin) Valley is also one of the most polluted regions in the state and country. The Valley does not currently meet health-based standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for ozone and particulate matter. On average the Valley exceeds the federal health-based standards for ground-level ozone 35-40 days and more than 100 days over the state ozone standard...The bowl-shaped Valley collects and holds emissions caused by the activities of the Valley's 3 million residents and their 2 million vehicles, as well as vehicles from other areas traveling on Highway 99 and Interstate 5. Farming and industry activity also plays a large role in the emission of particulates and ozone in the Valley. Air pollution transported from the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento areas account for approximately 27 percent of the total emissions in the Northern portion of the District (San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced Counties)...
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Post by hikerjer on Sept 14, 2016 16:36:31 GMT -8
It's not just the Sierras, it's the Rockies a well. I can hardly remember when the skies in our area were clear of smoke after mid-June. Just the way it's going to be in the future, I'm afraid. Welcome to the "new West".
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toejam
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Post by toejam on Sept 14, 2016 18:40:17 GMT -8
It's not that bad. I had nothing but bluebird skies, green trees, and milky way shows a few weeks ago. It was much nicer than last year when smoke was an issue every day for 3 weeks on the JMT. The bark beetles west of Yosemite are pretty bad, but I'll keep coming back expecting green trees & blue skies.
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Post by johntpenca on Sept 14, 2016 23:44:59 GMT -8
I am not a world traveler but have spent my share of hours flying in the US. No doubt air quality/clarity has gotten much worse
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swmtnbackpacker
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Post by swmtnbackpacker on Sept 15, 2016 7:08:57 GMT -8
Smoke from wildfire is the worst while backpacking. Start every season by checking out the droughts, but this years El Niño didn't dampen the fire near Lake Isabella when I did the southern Sierra section of the PCT
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Sept 15, 2016 8:05:51 GMT -8
No question the fire seasons are getting worse. But blue skies aren't all gone.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Sept 15, 2016 8:10:34 GMT -8
Smoke from Big Sur did move in that evening: But we still had clear blue skies in the morning:
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balzaccom
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Post by balzaccom on Sept 15, 2016 8:13:44 GMT -8
No points for guessing where THAT photo was taken!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2016 8:24:54 GMT -8
I am not saying that people should come to Idaho for backpacking trips, except to Sun Valley for a latte and a boat ride across Red Fish Lake. Idaho has numerous wilderness air strips and many of those air strips have webcams, that I use for numerous things; such as getting a view of the current air quality. The Pioneer Fire has burit for most of the summer, clouding the air but views into the Frank Church Wilderness of No Return shows clear skies: Ok, so thre are a few lingering clouds from the recent rains.
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Post by hikerchick395 on Sept 15, 2016 8:37:13 GMT -8
Hmmm...my experience this summer is less smoke and too many cloudless skies. As markskor mentioned...he had 20 minutes of rain this summer at Tuolumne. (June 28, I believe...we were camping there. Gorgeous sunset, too.) We had a few more sprinkles than that, near Bishop, but certainly not the usual. A week of bluebird sky days is enough to drive you crazy around here.
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davesenesac
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Post by davesenesac on Sept 15, 2016 8:51:44 GMT -8
Rebecca brought up a useful to understand point about smoke in the High Sierra. Even during periods that smoke is about, there are often periods when skies are either reasonably clear or absolutely clear. I explain in some speculation below in a snippet from my current 2016 Trip Chronicles feature why that is so. This comes from my own keen observations as a photographer that has a decades old compulsive habit of evaluating light, atomosphere, and weather. And that is why despite supposed smoky periods the last few years, I still have managed to get out at times. Further reading on my below link and looking at pictures shows how I was able to capture at least some fine images while skies both east and west of the crest area I was at were disgusting. In any case there are very clear situations where after evaluating Internet weather sites, and especially wind flow forecasts, that the chances of some clear periods per below are a poor gamble:
www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_Chronicles/summer_2016-13.html#jul31Note when valley air east or west beside the Sierra is smoky, hazy, or smoggy, sun heating valley air during daytime expands those air masses that then push outward and up canyons creating familiar afternoon winds. Thus the dirty air below moves up into mountain areas affecting air clarity. At night, especially on clear nights without clouds, heat on the Earth surface radiates into space at infrared wavelengths. Additionally at highest elevations, cold air flows out of cool snowfields and shadowed under the surface talus. Thus night sumping flows result that tend to gravity flow down drainages. As cold air flows down it also draws cool clear air down from higher atmospheric elevations above headwater basin peaks that by morning results in relatively clear air replacing what had been dirty afternoon air about crest areas. Well that is as long as there isn't upper air flows causing turbulence. Accordingly despite generally dirty air across the state, there was a fair chance my early morning work at crest areas would have reasonable air clarity.
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tarol
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Post by tarol on Sept 15, 2016 8:53:25 GMT -8
This isn't a new thing... John Muir noted bad air quality in the Sierra in the summer. Back then Native Americans did a lot of their own prescribed burning, and lightning caused fires did their thing for the most part. Then we started putting all fires out after about 1910, naturally caused or no. So from 1910 on blue skies prevailed, but that's not a natural or necessarily good thing. Only recently have they been trying to let naturally caused fires to do a little bit of the good work they did in the past. If you don't like to hike in the smoke, then I suggest checking air quality reports before you go and/or avoiding mountains that ring basins that are notorious for holding in air pollution. And don't hike during red flag fire danger times. Up in Oregon we have this blog which is helpful, but there are similar products elsewhere: oregonsmoke.blogspot.com/ Edit: here is the California blog californiasmokeinfo.blogspot.com/
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Sept 15, 2016 8:54:00 GMT -8
..my experience this summer is less smoke and too many cloudless skies. We don't really want smoke, but as photographers we definitely lamented too many cloudless skies!
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