WARNING: I'VE BEEN TRIGGERED! Or have recent events made that fashionable expression "triggered" suddenly become passé? Here's what's gotten under my feathers. I'm still bugged about the commenter who asked: "Geo, have you ever considered how many trees had to be chopped down in their prime, merely to be turned into Popsicle® stick riddles?" I have to assume the individual who submitted this query did not spend any time in southwestern Oregon this past August and September. Those unusual brown skies and blood red sunsets we saw through burning eyes here on the beach at Bandon were the result of nearly 200,000 acres of trees and other living things that went up in smoke about 80 miles away, putting tons of carbon pollution into our summer skies and our lungs. It wasn't just millions of potential Popsicle® sticks that burned to a crisp. Habitats and ecosystems and everything that they contained were destroyed, with many areas rendered sterile for years to come. And the current rainy season is washing the by-products of the inferno downstream. In the wake of the Chetco Bar Fire's devastation, a number of questions have followed. Was this a failure of long-term federal forest policy? Was the initial response inadequate? Could the impact of this blaze have been minimized?
Now, I'm as much of a preservationist and environmentalist as any other bird. Goodness knows we gulls do our share of recycling. But let's all try being guided by the facts and a sense of proportion, huh?
I warned you this could get intense. Now I'm feeling warmed up for a much-anticipated SEAGULL HATE UPDATE. Watch this space!
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Meet the AuthorHi. I'm Geo the Seagull.
I'm the distinguished Park Host on South Jetty Beach at Bandon, Oregon, USA. I'm a firm believer in First Principles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Your Lunch. Archives
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