Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Fire-Fire!
We drove through Custer, SD to the West and Jewel Cave. Unfortunately, the physical demands of the cave would be too much for us...so we indluged in the information about the area. On the way in we notice mile-after-mile of burned forest.
At the center for Jewel Cave we found out that in 2000 a huge fire destroyed 83,000 acres of forest. The entire Jewel Cave area was covered, but both cleaning of the underbrush around Jewel, and a dedicated group of fire fighters with foam managed to save the Cave buildings. The desolation from 2000 is still completely evident today. We were amazed no new saplings have sprung up.
The National Park Rangers at Jewel said this was the 1st actual time they have been able to follow the recovery of a forest after a major fire.
Let us hope the experiment....even though accidental....is successful!
Duke
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At the center for Jewel Cave we found out that in 2000 a huge fire destroyed 83,000 acres of forest. The entire Jewel Cave area was covered, but both cleaning of the underbrush around Jewel, and a dedicated group of fire fighters with foam managed to save the Cave buildings. The desolation from 2000 is still completely evident today. We were amazed no new saplings have sprung up.
The National Park Rangers at Jewel said this was the 1st actual time they have been able to follow the recovery of a forest after a major fire.Let us hope the experiment....even though accidental....is successful!
Duke
