With the ongoing battle against the many lightning-caused fires still underway, Governor Schwarzenegger visited the fire operations centers in NorCal this week, including Monterey and Chico Wednesday, and with US Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne in Shasta County near Whiskeytown Lake on Friday. The Guv visted with firefighters and their chiefs to assess the progress being made and declared emergency status for the 7 counties hardest hit. These include Butte, Shasta, and Trinity up this way as well as Mendocino, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and Monterey Counties. He also sought, and received, a federal declaration from President Bush for those same areas.
CalFire and many local and out of town departments have been effectively limiting these fires to non-residential burns and few buildings have burned given the great number of fires last weekend’s lightning strikes caused, charring over 60,000 acres. That number is a lot but much smaller than it could be. This as everyone holds their breath over current threat of new lightning strikes Sunday and Monday.
The inversion layer has helped suppress flames and their spreading but has made aerial operations near impossible from the thick smoke covering most of the north state skies, making the 12,000 gallon DC-10 jet I mentioned in a previous post , as well as any other aircraft, very limited use. However, another plane brought in, known as the Martin Mars, is ready on Shasta Lake when smoke conditions lift a bit. This bird scoops water right from the lake, skimming about 7200 gallons in 30 seconds and then heads back for another run, keeping turnaround times fairly short. The water is mixed with a gel that allows the water to "stick" and not immediately evaporate, 
cooling the fire conditions. {Yes, the gel is environmentally friendly…not sure if they have a fish screen on the plane’s water intake though…maybe an enterprising enviro lawyer can sue over that or the need for an EIR] This plane, resembling Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose is about as large as a 747 jumbo jet. It will likely be very helpful on the Motion Fire, which threatens residential areas around Shasta Dam as well as very large 500KV power lines and related infrastucture that supply, and if affected, would shut down much electricity for the whole state.
The smoke is everywhere and thick on the valley floor as well. Sacramento actually has better air than up here at home for a change as the Delta breezes and distance keep the Capitol skies a bit clearer as I have noticed on my commute.
One thing this illustrates is how big nature is compared to what we as humans do. These fires and the even larger, even more disastrous ones that occur produce so much more CO2 and particulate matter than what humans do that it underscores just how much this global warming-greenhouse gas reduction funny business is futile. We have 2 volcanoes up here in Mt Shasta and Mt Lassen. Lassen was last active in 1915 (see the photo of the blast as seen from Red Bluff).. Volcanic emission activity at any time could out-do human emission activity multiple times over, as Lassen back then, and Mt. St. Helens eruptions a few years ago and in the 80’s show us.
We’re not hearing much about how volcanic activity under the ice caps could be raising temperatures, instead we rush headlong into legislation like AB 32 which will cripple what economy we do have in California. Then we institute even more hands-off-the-forest policy with silly feel good carbon credits from not cutting trees, thereby making forests more tree-crowded and fire prone when drought hits them…not to mention keeping them "roadless" so fire equipment has to carve its way in under emergency conditions. We can comtemplate these things when the push for new taxes and fees inevitably comes up for fighting fires in what promises to be a very difficult year for the budget, the economy, as well as fire fighting.
In the mean time, our heartfelt thanks to CalFire and the all other firefighters called in, who are engaged for weeks straight, away from home, doing their best under difficult conditions.