Need for natural fires
Despite all the resources dedicated to fighting forest fires, Mensen and other environmentalists say fires are nature's way of keeping wildlife habitat in balance.
"It's kinda good to let some go," Mensen said, adding that fires in many parts of Montana were overdue.
"After years of preventing forest fires, there's so much fuel (flammable foliage) that the fires now are burning hotter and faster than if they'd burned years ago," he said.
Mensen said there's a push within land management agencies to recognize the need for natural fires, and in wilderness areas where no lives or structures are threatened, the forests are allowed to burn.
He said it's hard for people to see the value in losing century-old majestic pine trees, but Mensen said under the right conditions, these sturdy trees will survive a natural forest fire. "On these old trees, you can see the fire scars of forest fires that have occurred in the past."
Certain trees, such as white pine or ponderosa pine, rely on fires to clear out competing trees. Lodgepole pines need fires to survive. "Their cones pop open and release seeds under the heat of fire," Mensen said.
He said eventually Superior National Forest in Minnesota will have to take its turn at a wildfire, too. "We're due pretty soon," he said.
In spite of the staggering numbers of acres burned in the Northern Rockies, Mensen said it's important to keep things in perspective. "There's so much public land out there, it's not like it's all burning up," he said. "This is creating pretty good wildlife habitat by getting rid of the heavy fuels."