The Beautiful Columbia Gorge Burns

You my regular followers have seen me post time and time again about the beautiful hikes, views, lands and waters of the Columbia River Gorge here in the Pacific Northwest, USA)

This evening I came home from work and after feeding Lucy, Rob and I went out on our balcony to drink our favorite summer seasonal beer - Deschutes Brewery Fresh Squeezed IPA. Sitting here talking about our day and emptying out everything on our minds we noticed this strange snow-like something or other falling from the sky. We realized that it’s ash!! Ash from the fire at Eagle Creek, Oregon which is about 40 minutes away by car.

This fire began on Saturday and was started by someone going out into nature and lighting off fireworks. I tend be particularly tolerant of humans as we are, but this really blows my mind. What kind of mindset causes someone to out into the deep forest in the middle of a heatwave during the highest risk fire season of the year to light off fireworks - which are illegal anyway. Frankly, fireworks and nature aren't a good mix at any time of the year. There are so few lands for wildlife to inhabit and we should leave those quiet and as in tact as possible and keep our noisy fireworks to populated areas.

The initial 7 acre area has spread rapidly, as wildfires do with the 100 degree temperatures and steady breezes. Embers have eve blown across the river to the Washington side. This is a wide river so this is pretty hard to imagine. Small cities very close to Portland are now being evacuated and public schools in Portland are closed.

Larch Mountain area in June is a rich fertile carpet of trees for miles, now in flames

As I sit here and write - still outside on the balcony - ash is consistently falling and I have to blow it off my keyboard and screen every few minutes. The sky for 3 days has been eerily overcast with smoke and the strange orange light has colored the sun and moon all day and night making both orange and surreal. The last time ash fell in Portland was when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980.

This part of Oregon is where my heart lies. I LOVE it, I crave it, I am deeply nourished by it and my heart is breaking that it’s burning. I sat here and openly sobbed about it earlier. I know that forest fires are a healthy cycle in our ecosystem and that this will bring renewal ultimately, and if it had happened naturally it would be easier to swallow and not just one more foolish act of humanity. I'm not feeling my most positive, but watching my beloved forests, its vibrant wildlife, people’s homes and towns burn is really something.

Firefighting attempts have achieved zero containment

Stunning lands, wildlife, towns, homes, people are all devastated.
Town after town is being evacuated along the river

people watching from a safe distance

The flowers are the fireworks of the forest, and they last much longer!

There is no sunset nor sunrise, the smoke is too thick. All I can hope is that the person or those people have learned and will teach everyone they know about the potential impact of a single action as well as about fire safety and respect for our forests.

Please please do everything you can to preserve your local lands and not just from fire, but from the greed that is attempting to bend our laws for personal gain. A small group of influentials made up of our government and corporate interests are and have been attempting to "legally" use our public lands, national forests, and national parks for short-term personal profits with no consideration of the long-term consequences. Our vigilance is more important than ever, the lands of this country are our gold, the most precious resource that we the public own, take care of them, love them, preserve then and don't let anyone take them away!

Fairy Falls, Wakeena Trail, Columbia Gorge, May 2017, may cool quenching waters calm the raging fires

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