Letter: Conditions ripe for fire season

For the record, I support the reintroduction of fire to northern Arizona forests. I’m writing to gripe because I support intelligent reintroduction of fire to the dry, overgrown forest ecology that surrounds our community.

We have just come through one of the driest winters on record and although the weather in northern Arizona has always been unpredictable at best, one thing we can count on is that it will always — always — be dry and windy here in the springtime.

We call our sometimer neighbors who come up to their cabin in the woods the Icky Neighbors. They love nothing better than sitting around a campfire on a calm evening no matter how windy it will inevitably become in the daytime. We trust they have no malicious intent, but clearly, they also have no clue about what a danger they are to the forest we all love so much.

While other national forests in northern Arizona have had the good sense to put fire restrictions in place early this year, the Kaibab Forest decided to start a prescribed burn over the weekend instead. Brilliant. If it gets away from them, it will hardly be a surprise. If they get away with it and it treats only the 300 acres it’s supposed to, it will be a blessing. Either way, Kaibab Forest, how are we supposed to train our Icky Neighbors not to start fires under dangerous conditions when you persist in doing so?

We could sure use some help from you setting good examples, rather than fires, in the tinderbox we’re living in at present.

Terryl Warnock

Williams, Arizona