9NEWS - Top News Article - Fire at Snow Mountain Ranch 80 perce...

VIEW SLIDESHOW GRANBY - Firefighters spent all of Monday night into early Tuesday morning working on a 50-acre wildfire.

[Say What]

This fire might have been avoided if the Colorado Forest Service had been doing their job LAST YEAR!!! There were/are hundreds of dead-standing pine trees that should have been cut down as they were infested with Pine Beatles. This was a fire just waiting to happen, be it from lightening or careless campers. When I was up their last summer with my sons Cub Scouts troop, the dead trees were everywhere. Mountain residents are always being told to 'thin out' the brush around their houses and the rules should apply to the forest service as well.

Any lessons learned here? Probably not.

[Steve G]

Say What wrote:

This fire might have been avoided if the Colorado Forest Service had been doing their job LAST YEAR!!! There were/are hundreds of dead-standing pine trees that should have been cut down as they were infested with Pine Beatles. This was a fire just waiting to happen, be it from lightening or careless campers. When I was up their last summer with my sons Cub Scouts troop, the dead trees were everywhere. Mountain residents are always being told to 'thin out' the brush around their houses and the rules should apply to the forest service as well.
Any lessons learned here? Probably not.

Home owners too could have help minimize the damages by "thinning out" high risk areas near their own property. I don't feel sorry for them. They need to be held accountable for not taking the necessary precautions for living in heavily wooded areas.

[kayg]

FYI-The YMCA has been very proactive. Had the environmentalist not been so against timber sales conducted by the Forest Service in the late 1970's on, thinning of the forests could have continued and the pine beetle kill would not have been so dramatic. If you take a look at the forests you will see areas of healthy, green timber growth, these are areas that were either cleared by forest fires years ago or by timber sales. Now, the Forest Service is getting slammed by the same environmental groups about why they didn't do anything. Just can't win. BTW, I have nothing to do with the Forest Service but have witnessed what has taken place over the last 30 years.

You really shouldn't make judgements as you really don't know about the efforts that people in the area are taking and the amount of money they are spending trying to clear the dead trees from their property.

[kmay]

I've been a visitor at Snow Mountain Ranch for almost 30 years. When I was just a girl, I went every summer. SMR has thinned so many trees in the past years that I cry every time we drive in. They have lost so many trees, it isn't the same place as it was even a year ago.

Certainly, SMR isn't to blame. They are thinning trees like crazy.

[Michael Hazzard]

kayg wrote:

FYI-The YMCA has been very proactive. Had the environmentalist not been so against timber sales conducted by the Forest Service in the late 1970's on, thinning of the forests could have continued and the pine beetle kill would not have been so dramatic. If you take a look at the forests you will see areas of healthy, green timber growth, these are areas that were either cleared by forest fires years ago or by timber sales. Now, the Forest Service is getting slammed by the same environmental groups about why they didn't do anything. Just can't win. BTW, I have nothing to do with the Forest Service but have witnessed what has taken place over the last 30 years.
You really shouldn't make judgements as you really don't know about the efforts that people in the area are taking and the amount of money they are spending trying to clear the dead trees from their property.

Yea just blame the environmentalists for everything, they are the ones who crashed the Exxon Valdez too.
The forest service and there buddies the logging companies don't thin, they take every tree in the forest. Ever see a clearcut. Good luck to anyone wanting to see any Redwoods or Old Growth in the future.

[CCO]

I think you guys don't really know what your talking about. First... the fire was started by some people staying at snow maountain ranch... second of all a fire for this area is DESPERATLY needed. If you don't know a healthy forest hasa fire about once every.... 20 or so years. This forest hasn't had a burn in over 100 years. Cutting down the trees isn't going to help the pine beetle problem AT ALL. I work at Camp Cheif Ouray and it's sad to see spits where trees USED to be because of the horrible problem. I say let the whole valley just burn.

[Walt]

If I am not mistaken, it takes a burn for these trees to be able to reseed themselves. Nature has it right. If you want to be an environmentalist look at how Mother Nature has always kept the forrest healthy. You have to have fires to enrich the soil, open the pine cones to allow reseeding, etc.

[Adam]

Yea its all these wannabe hippie liberalls moving into the woods.Who put thier home and all thier personal posessions in the middle of a huge fire place.Then when thier homes burn down they wonder why this happened to them.People have gotten very ignorant and delusional to think they can control everything.