Opal Wildfire Update #7

May 19, 2010

Hello

All is well on the fire front.

Are the Opal Natural Areas and grazing leases now orphaned?  After this fire if the site isn't an orphan then it certainly is an ugly duckling.  But it won't always be that way.

41 years ago almost to the week, a wildfire marched across the Opal site.  It started on the east side and took four days of a steady south-east wind to travel to us.  Our family stood on a hill and watched while a quarter of a mile away the wildfire burned our livestock-handling facilities to the ground.

That wildfire left the site badly scarred but it came back -- the grass grew and ranchers pastured their cattle.  The shrubs popped up and produced berries.  Poplar, pine and spruce came back and so did the wildlife.  The site recovered from that fire and given time it will recover from this one.  This time I think that the smart thing and the right thing would be if all of us had a hand in managing the recovery of this site.  By all of us I mean provincial departments like SRD and Parks, local counties, the leaseholders and not-for-profits that express an interest in helping out.  It will be a long time before this fire is totally out.  A lot of courage, strategizing, sweat and treasure will have been expended in putting out this fire.  If we would all agree to work together we might be able to manage this area in a way that would prevent a tragedy like this in the future.  We should adopt this ugly duckling.  We all know how that story turned out.

Let me know what you think.

Richard