Forest Fires in Montana
 

Hello travelers. I live between Yellowstone and Glacier parks here in montana. Yes there are fires and smoke about but the whole state is not on fire. We have smoke in the valley where I live but the sky is blue overhead. With care you can still travel anywhere and see beautiful sights. The higher elevations get more wind and so it clears the smoke sometimes.

Could be some news outlets exaggerate fire conditions. For sure happens around here, hurts tourism for locals.

How are your fires getting started in Montana? In California Arson seems to be a popular trade for out of work itinerant fire fighters. Many many Arson fires ... costing taxpayers hundreds of millions. I realize some start from Lightning strikes and Camp Fires too ... but far too many start from "unknown" source.

The big fire fighter camps are really something to see if you've never seen one in operation. 1000's of men and women, living in tents, like a refugee city, but these are fully equipped "cities" with everything one could need ... but real rest is in short supply.

Several BIG Heliocopters with big bomber planes doing water drops will be there or near by, dipping into lakes to fill up, then blasting off to do another water drop. This is big business ... and everybody gets PAID.

montana has had a bunch of lightning caused fires. It has been very dry and then a thunder storm without much rain will blow thru.

Right now we have two DC 10 water bomber stationed in the state capital of helena plus they are using the military helicopters for water drops.

I am not looking forward to the bill for all this equipment , personnel, and management of the fires. Millions of dollars in a state that has 1.3 million residents.

Mostly federal money in one form or another....although I read that a recent request by the State of Montana for federal firefighting funds had been denied, so who knows? Maybe this is the beginning of the oft-promised devolution of responsibilities to the state level.

I hope the above is a joke, not for real. In my area further west, we've managed just a couple of hundredths of an inch of rain in the past several months, with more heat on the way. What good is summertime if it's too hot to ride a bike?