Bubba Suess - Aug 2, 2014 1:12 am - Voted 8/10
Burned I assume then?How bad did it burn? Is there still much of the Pine Ridge that is unburned?
scramblingbadger - Aug 2, 2014 1:43 am - Hasn't voted
Range of fire damageFire crews and the forest service kept people out of those areas for a long time. When I did get a chance to tour around, it was similar to past major fires. Large dense areas of forest were often totally destroyed. Where the forest had been thinned, and where it was naturally sparse (like extremely steep slopes and ravines), the damage was much less - sometimes quite minimal. Once the dead trees are cleared, the area may look much like it did in the 1800's, when the first settlers arrived. The forests were sparse then, due to natural prairies fires constantly thinning the forest. Rural firemen told me fires burn much cooler and do less damage where the forest is thinner. Some of the firemen said about half the forest acres in the Pine Ridge were destroyed between the major fires of 2006 and 2012. Those ponderosa pine forests come back slowly. These will not be back in my lifetime, I am sad to say.
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