This has been a bad fire season up here. The fire on the Kenai Peninsula, the Swan Lake fire, was started by lightning. The two big fires north of here along the Parks Hwy between Willow and the Talkeetna junction at mile 99 are suspected to be human caused. I don’t know about arson, the deliberate setting of a fire, but human caused can be any number of things.

Southcentral Alaska had a high pressure area stalled above it this summer resulting in extremely dry conditions, and while it was unusually hot, it was the lack of rain and accompanying dryness that made for the high fire danger, along with all the spruce trees killed by the spruce bark beetles. The air has been smoky, and at times almost like a heavy fog, since the Swan Lake fire started in June. It hasn’t been good for take photos, and I’ve not been out all summer with the camera. I feel like we’ve been camping since June and forced to sit downwind of the campfire!! Lovely.

The weather has finally changed and the high has moved on, and now we have rain. It’s not pretty, but it is much needed and will help with managing the forest fires. A lot of acres of forest have burned, but as one poster said, come back in a couple years and you’ll be amazed at the regrowth that has taken place. Yes, there is a lot of misinformation and lack of knowledge about Alaska, but a little online research will answer a lot of questions. Or just ask someone who lives up here. Most of us know our state.