Fire is Our Enemy, Or Is It

Fire is one of the first visitors to the valley that I can remember from my childhood. It came almost every year. Someplace around the valley I call home. People hate it. Fear it. Loathe it. I can't blame them. It takes a lot. Even when it doesn't touch you directly. The worry, concern for friends and family, and the constant "please God not my land next year."

The thing I sit with nearing fifty and having watched this visitor return year after year is the good it does our small community too. I may not make any friends writing this. That is fair. No one wants to hear me play advocate for a natural disaster. Especially now, in the heart of fire season, with several active fires burning.

The thing is, right now, over a thousand firefighters are working in our county. Some of them locals who have needed work desperately all year. Those that are not local are spending their money here. In our communities. Soon, state, federal, and insurance money will be coming into the valley as well. We are a financially poor county. Any help is a blessing. Especially for small businesses.

Then there is the land. For the next year or so we will have a very close source of morel mushrooms. Many people harvest them for their table and their profit.

Many acres of invasive plants have been removed. And for some, their land has been cleared of sage so they can do something more with it.

Not that everyone wants the sage removed from their land. For those that don't, a few years will see more sage growing. Sage roots usually survive fire. However those that want clear land haven't had to spend money to do so.

And of course there is our gene pool issue. I hate to say this, but some of us are more closely related than we want to admit. Even to ourselves. Often without us knowing it. So, every once in a while a firefighter finds a companion here locally. Once in a while a child comes from it. It never hurts to have an outside genetic source added to the gene pool. Given some of us can't date locally at all, I will always encourage diversity.

Anyway, I won't say fire is our friend. I also won't say it is our enemy. We could have worse natural disasters. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes aren't things we can actively fight or prevent. Fire, at least, is a visitor we can do something about.