Straight talk about range fire

    Have you ever been in a traumatic, violent car accident? If so, you know the worst part isn’t the chaos of panicked surgeries in the ER but the years of restorative surgery and physical therapy to regain full function.
    Now, have you ever had a planned, minor surgery? You know, a tooth pulled, appendectomy, a mole removed. How does that experience compare with the traumatic injury above? It was probably much more managed, smooth and ultimately less painful.
    So, now let’s take a step back. Do you think surgery is a bad thing? When you are sick, does it make sense to blame surgery itself? Those questions seem silly in this context. However, this analogy is exactly the way we should be thinking about rangeland fire.
    The 30,000 acre recent fire in Logan/Phillips counties is comparable to the car accident referenced above. It was an accidental tragedy, resulted in significant loss and will have long-term ramifications on the landscapes and families affected. But with sound, guided range management (“physical therapy” for the land), these lands will come back stronger than before.  

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