Posted in Forest fires, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Wildland fires on November 1, 2007 | 16 Comments »
For the first two hours of today’s hunt, I thoroughly enjoyed walking in the footprints of deer and elk and moose. The temperature was in the 40’s but the wind was strong and cold. For about three miles, I stayed below the ridge tops and hunted the semi-open hillsides where the game would be bedded [...]
Posted in Cabinet Mountains, Chippy Creek fire, Forest fires, McGregor - Thompson roadless area, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures on October 22, 2007 | 10 Comments »
One week ago the last of the access roads into the area of the Chippy Creek fire were re-opened and so yesterday I was able to make my first brief visit into one small part of the burned area near Thompson Peak for a few photos.
The fire started on July 31, 2007 and burned from [...]
Posted in Coeur d'Alene Mountains, Forest fires, Montana, Mule deer, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Wood cutting on October 17, 2007 | 8 Comments »
I like this photograph, not because it’s a great photograph but because of the elements of the natural process that it contains.
The tree trunks are black from the fire in 2002 which killed about 50,000 acres of the forest which is sad, but:
New green pines can be seen which in due time will replace [...]
Posted in Forest fires, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Rural fire department, Wildland fires, wildfire on September 18, 2007 | 17 Comments »
The evening was slightly cooler than the day had been and clouds covered the sky to the southwest, the direction from which weather always approaches. From the TV the sportscaster’s voices droned on, peaked with excitement at a nice play and then leveled off going into a commercial: the game was reasonably interesting but not [...]
Posted in Cabinet Mountains, Forest fires, McGregor - Thompson roadless area, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures on August 27, 2007 | 6 Comments »
At one hundred thousand acres, it looks like this fire will not grow larger now, but inside the perimeter some of it will probably continue to burn until the snow comes.
The southwest corner from five miles away:
The northeast corner from twenty+ miles away:
These last two large plumes of smoke are over fifteen miles apart, and [...]
Posted in Forest fires, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures on August 18, 2007 | 11 Comments »
On Thursday we had a temperature inversion that channeled the smoke from the nearest fire right down close to the ground. That is never fun for those who have respiratory problems, but it creates some interesting visual effects, a couple of which I captured.
The morning sun at about 8 AM in the valley,
and at around [...]
Posted in Chippy Creek fire, Environment, Forest fires, McGregor - Thompson roadless area, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures on August 15, 2007 | 14 Comments »
For many years forest fires have been fought by air using helicopters dropping buckets of water and very large aircraft dropping huge amounts of fire-retarding slurry. The helicopters (like this one) can be based very close to the fire and attack quickly, filling their drop buckets from nearby lakes or rivers and if none are [...]
Posted in Cabinet Mountains, Chippy Creek fire, Environment, Forest fires, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures on August 13, 2007 | 6 Comments »
According to the latest news broadcast, the fire expanded by 4,000 acres yesterday and may do about the same again tonight. 70,000 acres or 109 square miles have burned so far, 4.7 million dollars has been spent to fight it, and it’s 30% contained. It’s the largest one in Montana at the time and [...]
Posted in Chippy Creek fire, Environment, Forest fires, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures on August 12, 2007 | 7 Comments »
When I was photographing the northeast end of the Chippy Creek fire Friday, as I looked to the southeast, this was what it looked like along the Little Bitterroot River.
While looking at it, who would think that the following scenes would be seen by simply turning around!
I suspect this isn’t the first time that [...]
Posted in Animals, Bighorn sheep, Chippy Creek fire, Forest fires, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures on August 11, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Yesterday while vectoring around to find a good angle for photographing the progress of the Chippy Creek fire, I ran into these Bighorns at the edge of the prairie. The problem is, if the current effort to stop the fire’s northeasterly progress isn’t successful, they are right in its path. They do have an escape [...]
