Liz Writes Life 8-14-18

August 14, 2018

Liz Writes Life

Oh, how glorious to see blue skies on Friday and Saturday! Before that, the smoke was so thick, I didn’t like opening the windows at night to let in the early-morning cool air. The smoke hadn’t bothered me much until Thursday and I finally felt really yucky. I am hearing of sinus infections, dry throats, coughing, breathing problems and yucky-ness to the point of throwing-up.

The past 30 years of demands by the enviros’ to save the trees has sure backfired, yet they still claim it is global warming causing the problem. Ugh!  The fact is there are just too many trees. And too many trees suck-up too much water. And, in the winter, too many trees close the tree-tops’ canopy stopping snow from packing under the trees. Again, no snowpack means there is little melted snow for natural irrigation for the trees.

We are certainly learning that Disney-looking thick, green forests are not healthy for the trees, wildlife or humans. There was a photo of a good-sized bear cub found on the Carr Fire with severely-burned paws. It was so sad! Veterinary-type people have come up with a new patch to sew onto their paws with medicine for healing. I hope it works!

It makes me sick to think of the wildlife that are burned-up in the fast-moving fires or lose their habitat and food creating starvation. Once again, I have learned from my forester friends that healthy forests are in a variety of stages of ages and sizes – and most importantly are not too thick.

So, I will take another step higher on my soap box and claim that the old or newer fire lines that bulldozers have made for preventing fires need to be much wider. Wider and wider. Take out those trees. Shaded fuel-breaks are still too thick for fire carried by dangerous winds. Bulldoze huge wide swaths of scrub oaks, brush, weeds and grass in the lower elevations – especially under or near power lines. Next, criss-cross the huge fire lines. From a distance, we would see huge a giant checkerboard of cleared vegetation. This is an extreme premise and would never happen, but vegetation must be cleared and re-cleared -- cuz it grows back!

We must create a real industry of thinning the trees – yes, logging. The industry must be profitable, which will establish a healthy economy for rural counties. Heaven knows this fire fighting economy is not profitable. It sucks the life out of county, state and federal budgets and leaves a black apocalypse of environmental destruction.

Last week, I talked with Ray Haupt, our Dist. 5 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor. He is really frustrated over the enormity of the wildfires and said nearly all fire fighting resources are being utilized. In other words, any new fires will not get the attention they may need because fire engines, water tankers, fire crews, hot shot crews, air attack, bull dozers and other equipment are working to control existing fires.

Ray also said we need to pay close attention to the use of fire – anywhere. The fuels condition (that’s the trees and vegetation) are at the highest level of dryness and humidity is extremely low. No sparks from anything!

Once again, I’ll mention that in the “old” logging days, loggers were out in the woods with their bull dozers and equipment. Loggers were the first to arrive at many fires and immediately began work on containment, because they had the equipment. Talk to any old-time logger and their goal was to “put the fire out.” Logging roads were maintained for access and use.

Oh, it was nice to see that our local fabulous photographer, Mel Fechter, is back taking photos after problems with his hip replacement. He emailed photos of a chopper dipping retardant out of a mobile Cal Fire base at Trinity Center Airport west of the Carr Fire. As of Sunday night, the Carr Fire is 191,211 acres and 59 percent contained. He reminded us that 8 deaths are associated with this fire. Just too sad.

And Oregon’s Natchez Fire is threatening to come over Greyback into Happy Camp. Not good. Evening Town Hall meetings are being held for those residents.

Ok, I have ranted that subject to death!

Not guilty

A jury listened to 11 days of testimony from more than 40 witnesses during three weeks of FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita’s trial. After six hours of deliberation, last Friday, the jury found him “not guilty” on all three counts. I am not surprised.

Blogger of Nextrush Free.blogspot.com wrote about the situation. I would like to quote him: “He was prosecuted for lying about firing two shots at LaVoy Finicum's truck moments before Oregon Standoff protest spokesman Finicum was killed by Oregon State Police along US Route 395 in Harney County, Oregon on January 26, 2016.

“One of Astarita's shots injured Ryan Bundy, another Oregon Standoff protester.

“Going into the trial Lavoy's former associate and leader of the 2016 protest, Ammon Bundy, expected that Astarita would not face any consequences when the trial was all over. Bundy proved to be correct.

“Reflecting on the trial before the verdict, LaVoy's widow Jeanette Finicum said the federal prosecutors made a poor case against Astarita.  She has also said in other videos that the trial seemed to be heavily into the assassination of her husband's character rather than a robust attempt to prosecute the FBI agent.

“Even if Astarita had been convicted, an appeal was certain.   Some observers at the trial said that the 91-year old federal judge presiding, US District Judge Robert E. Jones, had actually fallen asleep at times.

“One thing that did come out during the trial was a lot of sniping between the Oregon police and the FBI, with witnesses from both factions expressing criticism of how the other faction behaved during the "felony traffic stop" that ended up killing LaVoy Finicum and injuring Ryan Bundy.

“At least two civil lawsuits are in the system right now over what happened including the one filed by members of the Finicum family.

“The plantiffs got plenty of ammunition about bad acting and or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement during the whole fiasco of January 26, 2016 delivered by the competing factions in the trial.”

One of the jurors was interviewed by reporter Maxine Bernstein of OregonLive.com. He said that it looked like more than one person could have fired the two unaccounted-for shots, which gave him sufficient doubt. But, he did add it is possible that someone was lying. He didn’t know which side, or who, or “it could be both.” His identity was kept confidential. Hum, sounds like a very truthful observation.

POW

Scott Valley Protect Our Water will hold its next meeting on Thurs., Aug. 30, 2018 at the Fort Jones Community Center at 7 p.m. Ray Haupt will be one of the speakers.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Call her at 530-467-3515. Check out her blog at: LizWritesLife.blogspot.com

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