Smoke

Smoke

You’ve heard the saying, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire!” Well, there is a lot of smoke here in Montana this summer. That’s not news because there are always forest fires this time of year. Last year because we had plenty of moisture there were only a few fires. This summer, with the whole state bordering on extreme drought, over eight hundred thousand acres of timber are going up in smoke.

My friend Hal and I took a jeep ride last week. We drove down the Gallatin Canyon toward Big Sky and made a left turn up Castle Rock trailhead. About eleven miles on a dirt road brought us to a spectacular view of a canyon ravaged by fire. Several years ago, a fire burned through here leaving blackened tree trunks, a graveyard of a once marvelous forest.

An interesting thing about forest fires is that almost immediately new growth appears. Green grass, small shrubs, wild flowers and yes even scraggly pine trees popping up all over the place. The inevitability of an aging forest set on fire by lightening or human carelessness provides the opportunity for new life. It will take years for this wilderness to restore itself, but it will.

Meanwhile, the smoke is causing serious health issues. Without rain or snow, the fires will smolder into late autumn. As smoke settles into the valleys, the mountains seem to disappear. The sunrises and sunsets take on a spectacular glow of bright red, orange and pink. Funny how natural disasters can produce such unnatural beauty.

The Bible talks a lot about fire. The Old Testament book of Proverbs has this to say: “Three things are never satisfied, no, there are four that never say, ‘That’s enough, thank you!’ Hell, a barren womb, a parched land, a forest fire.”

This summer Montana qualifies on two of the four!