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Originally Posted by surferdave
that is just lame to ban all campfires at all times. No one opposes restrictions when fire danger is high. We all know there are plenty of careless or uneducated people. However, when fire danger is low there is no reason to ban fires.
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Everyone has a right to their opinion and for some this smacks of over-reach by the gub'mint but I'll point out that currently the southwest is in a prolonged drought.
Besides human-caused wildfires, the restrictions were also put into place to lower the impacts of emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe you have never seen a fire camp but it's a germ factory with little hope for sanitation measures much less social distancing. That, and with all the people recreating in the forest much less communities that might need to evacuate on already busy arterial roads that become choke points is a valid concern.
Lastly, simply saying that fire danger is low is not correct. It is in fact quite high. Currently state II fire restrictions are in place. The forest service uses the energy release component as an indication of how dry the fuel load is for any specific location. It is indeed quite dry and I wouldn't be surprised to see closures implemented before the summer monsoon rains come in July.
https://gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/predictiv...s/Areawide.htm