I'm sure many of you have heard about the wildfires that are ravaging the west. The tragic destruction has made the national news. Colorado has not been excluded from the fire disasters. Hundreds of homes have been lost. We don't even know how many homes at this point because the evacuation orders are still in place in most areas.
This reminds me of the Hayman fire of 2002 where over 135,000 acres of our beautiful Colorado forest was burned. Over 500 structures were lost in that fire.
Tragically, the Hayman Fire started when a United States Forest Employee named Terry Barton burned a "Dear John" letter she had gotten from her beau and the fire got out of hand.
These burn areas will never look the same again in our lifetime. It takes that long for the forest to regenerate. I was very lucky in that two weeks before the Hayman Fire started, I spent a week on horseback in the Colorado back country. Precisely where the fire did it's worst. But, because of that trip, the beauty of the area is forever in my memory. Our children will never be so lucky.
I went back out on horseback to the Hayman burn area a couple of months after the fire and was astounded at what once was lush Ponderosa Pine and Aspen growth was nothing more than a blackened moonscape. Even my horse seemed to know how bad it was, as he was edgy, skittish and on guard as we made our way along once familiar trails.
We watched as huge helicopters dropped bales of straw on the burned out ground in an effort to alleviate loss of ground due to run off. That ride broke my heart, and in a way my spirit. Wildfires cause so much loss...
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