— from San Juan Island National Historical Park —
Due to very dry conditions and increasing fire danger on San Juan Island, Superintendent Elexis Fredy has announced fire restrictions in San Juan Island National Historical Park.
Beginning August 21, 2018, fire restrictions prohibit:
- Building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire or campfire, charcoal grill, tiki torches, incense burners, candles, propane campfires, or wood burning stoves, including in developed picnic grounds. Devices using pressurized liquid or gas are not exempted
- Fireworks are prohibited at all times within San Juan Island National Historical Park.
These fire restrictions will remain in effect until further notice.
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 417 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.
There should not be any outdoor fires in San Juan County. Why is the Fire Marshall not issuing a total ban on any outdoor fires ? Do we have to wait for a disaster to happen ?
We agree. The Fire Marshall must issue a total ban on all fires on public and private land in San Juan County. This ban must go in effect immediately.
Agreed.
There’s constant tension between commercializing a venue to raise revenue and looking at the venue honestly with eyes of integrity.
If we stop for a minute and look honestly at many of our planning and policy goals, “greed” does a real number on us.
For example, what you often see happening around you, including in the ongoing Eastsound Airport debate, is how we replace a “want” with a “need” in the context of arguing for change followed by converting a “want for more money” into a “need for more money,” which then serves as a powerful marketing tool to accomplish its short term destructive ends.
Why do we do this? Because we do not know or examine ourselves honestly and distinguish between what we want and what we need, and we end settling for more ephemeral wants of “pleasure and profit” sacrificing the real “needs” a future generations.
That’s the very definition of unenlightened self-interest. We can and “need” to do better if we really care for anyone or anything but ourselves.
With that formula, predicated on the ever-present and always-reliable “greed” factor, you can just about get away with any type of change, irrespective of whether the change violates the continually valid reasons and present purpose of the venue, the ecological considerations surrounding the venue, and the longer-term health benefit and welfare of the people who live in and around the venue.
With climate change, many more of us each and every day in each and every place, and nature’s already unpredictable weather patterns and natural need to clean house at different intervals in its own natural course and history, why on earth can’t we use more common sense, moderate our own selfish behavior, and lose the special entitlement that we can do whatever we want, when and wherever we want.
Those days are over.
Small islands can’t afford provoked and unnecessary fires into the thousands of acres.
We are pressured more now than ever before to look at the poor and unsustainable rationale that powers our thinking and policies.
Agreed. A complete fire ban. The safety, health and welfare of our citizens must come first.
How do we contact them to insist on a complete outdoor fire ban? Who do we contact?
https://www.sanjuanco.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=542
San Juan County: A Burn Ban will begin Tuesday, August 21, 2018 at noon. Elevated temperatures for extended periods and our lack of precipitation has created a high fire danger in San Juan County, and across the region. San Juan County will be prohibiting all outdoor burning with the exception of propane barbecues.
No outdoor fires of any kind are allowed. This includes recreational fires as well as the use of backyard fire kettles, chimneys, or fire pits.
Similar bans are already in effect throughout all lands protected by the Department of Natural Resources and throughout Island , Skagit, and Whatcom Counties.
It is worth noting that Washington State Parks may have different rules for burning check their website for burning rules here: https://parks.state.wa.us/DocumentCenter/View/5654/Statewide-Burn-Ban?bidId=
These changes to burning restrictions are likely to continue into the fall when the seasonal rains return. Check the San Juan County Fire Marshal’s Office website for the most up to date burning information. https://www.sanjuanco.com/1091/Fire-Risk-Burn-Permits
As of this morning there is a complete burn ban in thd County. This article is in the Islands Sounder this morning. https://www.islandssounder.com/news/burn-ban-extended-in-san-juan-county/
No bundle of firewood should be sold anywhere. The visitors do not always know that there is a burn ban as they can buy firewood along the roads and at the market.