I've been spending too much time sitting here at the computer watching (via the maps on inciweb) my favorite wilderness areas burn to cinders. Some examples: The rugged Entiat River valley in north central WA, home of 700-year-old rare Alpine (Lyall's) larch trees and one of the great places for an autumn pilgrimage to see its needles turn golden. That fire (Wolverine) has the potential to spread to much of the rest of the Glacier Peak Wilderness east of the Cascade Crest, especially with extremely high winds (and not enough rain) forecast for this weekend's storm. The Wenaha/Tucannon Wilderness in SE WA, NW OR, favorite place for early season hikes. The Strawberry Mountain Wilderness in eastern OR. The Mt. Adams Wilderness area in SW WA. These are all mammoth mega-fires that started with lightning strikes in rugged wilderness and then blew up to menace homes, livelihoods and lives (three firefighters lost already). These fires have far outrun the assets available to contain them.

What I'd like to do here is to open the whole area of western wildfires up for dscussion. Hopefully we can do this in a calm, logical manner, although, as pointed out, it's difficult when your favorite places are going up in smoke.

Have at it, folks!