Forest and Friends - July 30, 2026
Welcome to fire season in the PNW! I’m sure you’ve seen the smoke, felt the heat and wind, and heard the thunder that comes with copious dry lightning on our drought dried landscape. This has been a slow start to the summer seasons, many projects meant to reduce wildfire risk have been paused because the log-market is in the toilet and now we’re in the uncontrolled burning phase of not taking steps to reduce the impact.
We’re going to meet on the Eastside next Thursday, back at Cascadia pizza. New friends are always welcome, the weather will be warm – if the air is clear we’ll try for the patio. We’re 800’ from the 2-line Bel-Red link stop, easy to get here and join the conversation about forest health.
The photo here is of pyrocumulonimbus clouds from the Anderson Creek fire, North of us in BC., Photo by Brad Atchison taken about 220 km from the fire (https://cfjctoday.com/2026/07/23/pyrocumulus-clouds-from-wildfire-in-fraser-canyon-loom-high-over-b-c/). Fires such as these are often lightning started, then turn around and start kicking out lightning! This starts more fires and the last couple weeks have had a couple waves of lightning bursts in the PNW. We can expect the fire (and smoke) season to be bad this year, starting now. Everything is dry out there, and the heat has now been up long enough to bake out all the water. On my way over Snoqualmie pass a couple weeks ago I was noting the green brush and low water level already sitting in Keechelus lake – I tend to think of the island still being an island at this time of year. If you haven’t changed your air filters, here is your reminder. If you have had a lot of smoke intrusion over the last week now is the time to buy a box fan and some filters and make your Corsi-Rosenthal device – it really helps. The smokeblog is full of updates, got off to a start on June 17th this year, which is pretty late, but things are popping off now. It isn’t all grim news out there, but with forestry work being one of the ways we can mitigate future fire intensity and smoke plumes it is a shame that recent tariffs are hitting timber and disrupting local and import markets.
Feel free to join us for pizza and a pint as we talk about climate! We’ll be geeking out, enjoying the taplist, menu, and friendship while we talk forests, startups, GIS, policy, etc. I’ll be wearing a hardhat and cruising vest – feel free to walk right up and join our table.