Blackened Idaho
By Joe B.
An ecological disaster on a grand scale in 2007 was largely ignored by the outside world. Because we live near the forest, it’s our fault, or so they said.
Summer before last Central Idaho burned to the tune of 800,000 acres, mostly along the South Fork of the Salmon River and its tributaries. These photos capture only some of the destruction and only one emotion of the many that have been and are still being evoked.
Grown men and women have been brought to tears when they first saw what happened to their beloved forests. These aren’t the environmentalists, no sir, the environmentalists have largely applauded this destruction. The people who have shed tears are people who lost homes, lost memories, and lost landscapes. We lost our backyard. We lost our forests — forests we grew up in, forests we cared deeply about.
I thought long and hard about this. Mike at W.I.S.E. asked for photos from the fires in Central Idaho last year on his website. I sent him over 70 shots, many of which he posted [on the SOSF Photo Page 1: Boise and Payette Post-2007 fires, here].
Here are some more.
Between Warren and Secesh
Boise National Forest sign.jpg
The Boise National Forest
Fire burned everything
Gone baby gone
Looking north on the South Fork Road
Lovely forest
South of Yellow Pine
South Fork Road
Warm Lake summit in the Boise NF
*****
Extra: A couple of post-fire pics from New Mexico in 2004. Photos by Gerald Ullery, courtesy Julie Kay Smithson.
by YPmule
Thank you Joe B. and Mike for posting these. I still want to cry.
Me too.
Joe — please email me ASAP. Thanks, Mike.
In addition, please note that four new photos of the Angora Fire (South Lake Tahoe, June 2007) taken today (two years afterward) have been posted at the SOSF Photo Page 2: Sierra Nevada Post-Fires [here].