West River bracing for water shortages, wildfires; Thune, Noem slamming burning barn door

State Rep. Bernie Hunhoff (D-18) still believes in the state that I've forsaken. He has some common sense wildfire defense advice for East River residents frustrated with Gov. Denny Daugaard's lack of action:

If you live in the country, take a hard look at your yard before the temperatures get any higher. Move firewood and other kindling away from buildings. Keep haystacks, fuel barrels and other inflammatory materials in spacious areas that can be reached by fire trucks. Keep the grass mowed and trim the trees so if a fire does start it is containable.

Hey, look: Les Roselles and Jerry Apeshit are running to replace Bubble Butt as mayor of Lead while Sen. don Juan Thune and Rep. Krusti Noem arrive about ten years late to fight ponderosa pine infestation in the Black Hills.

LawCo should have panicked a long time ago.

Lawrence County Deputy State’s Attorney Bruce Outka said that in-kind, as well as monetary resources, count in the match process giving the county about $955,000.--Jaci Conrad Pearson, Black Hills Pioneer.

Creeks in the Southern Hills are dry with little relief in sight: it's staggering to see so many real estate signs on properties surrounded by dead and dying ponderosa pine as people and cattle have sucked up all the water.

West Nike Fire

From a piece by Aaron Orlowski published in the Rapid City Journal.

Last summer was one of the busiest ever for firefighters. It is a sentiment shared by Dave Barber, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, who said that although precipitation totals are about average this winter, it has been a long, dry spell for western South Dakota. “If we don’t see precipitation as we begin to warm up and get more sunshine, we are going to get a lot of dry grass conditions and that can be dangerous,” he said Sunday. “I just hope we pick up more snow and spring rain.”

Forest management=land management: banning the acquisition of threatened resources only puts existing public holdings at risk to unintentional often-costly human-caused wildfires.

The scale of pine infestation is changing daily even as the beetle gets the rap. Now, it has been labelled an invasive species although the insect has been managing the habitat effectively for eons before European cattle destroyed it as a bison range.

Investors: stay away from the Hills until after it burns to the ground then enjoy bargain basement prices as it renews in juniper, aspen and oak.