Frank talk about wildfires by 6 former smokejumpers

We can take affirmative steps to moderate global warming, right here in Montana. Our firefighters and our communities demand no less.

This summer’s catastrophic wildfire season and hazardous, persistent smoke pollution has all Montanans talking. The fires took the lives of two young men, destroyed homes and Sperry Lodge, blew a hole in the state budget, discouraged tourism and other businesses and burned more than 1.2 million acres of Big Sky Country. Fire and smoke throughout our region forced large-scale evacuations and school closures, curtailed outdoor recreation, threatened health, robbed us of our glory days of summer, and was red-flag risky to the chilly end.

As former smokejumpers, we’re no strangers to the threat wildfires pose to human life, property and the state’s economy. While wildfires are an annual occurrence and a natural, even necessary, part of our ecosystems, the scale and ferocity of this year’s fires and associated drought are extraordinary. They challenged the defensibility of our homes and communities. It’s time for our elected leaders to set partisan politics aside and hold objective discussions about forces driving fire seasons and what we’re going to do about it.

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