For The Love of Forests

This week, the final series of a story on fire mitigation runs and I hope you have read them. If not, take the time to go back to the last three issues and read them.

I learned so much, and thought it was important to pass on to our readers in the Saratoga Sun. I got to know people I haven’t met before and watch them as they talk about doing jobs they love.

It is not easy being in a public job where you are criticized no matter what you do.

The amount of work, planning and executing a plan to try and save 360,000 acres of forest land is not an easy task. Our United States Forest Service, Wyoming Forestry, Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming Game and Fish and so many others should be commended for the work they have put into fire mitigation.

I love our forest, and it has saddened me to watch the lush green forest turn gray over the last 25 years from beetle kill. But after spending hours listening and talking to these people, I have come to realize they love our forest too. They protect the forest from overuse by closing roads, which in turn protects our watershed. We may not always agree with what they do, but maybe because we are too worried about losing our rights to public land, rather than protecting that public land.

I spend a lot of time in the forest in the summer and fall taking pictures. I grew up in corn country, so seeing the tall forest trees splashed with fall colors from the aspen makes me want to get up and capture that beauty with my camera.

But things I do notice while enjoying the beauty are disturbing. People driving too fast on forest service roads, people leaving their litter on the ground, on picnic tables or throwing it in the ditch. I feel like I should have gloves and garbage bags in my vehicle to pick up the trash I see strewn about and will be doing that in the future.

When I go out on camera shoots of nature, there is a saying - leave it better than you found it. There is a lot of truth to that. We can all work together to keep our forest safe and clean.

Don’t leave a fire unattended, don’t assume someone will pick up after you and don’t take your all terrain vehicles off trail just because you can.

We have some real beauty in our forest, some that has not been discovered except by hiking on foot. There are also a lot of historic gems in our forest. Don’t destroy them by taking souvenirs.

We are fortunate to live in such a beautiful area - lets work to keep it that way for others to enjoy in the future.