Currently worried about: As many of you might have already heard, a fire broke out near the entrance of Denali National Park on 6/30. Fortunately, crews are working hard to contain it (25% contained so far) and it hasn’t spread very far (388 acres so far). However, it certainly disrupted some tourist activities (closed the park, halted the train, etc), wiped out power in the canyon business district of the park, which displaced workers from their seasonal housing and put jobs on hold. This is heartbreaking for our area where businesses depend entirely on tourism squeezed into 4 short months.
I am grateful at this point because our wood-sided homes surrounded by an enormous forest of natural fuel are not yet affected. It’s easy to downplay volatile weather and our crumbling Earth when viewed in isolated snapshots of events on the news. But when it’s unfolding before your eyes … that’s an entirely different perspective. In general, I’ve always told people it’s not a question of IF there will be a wildfire in our area, but WHEN. This summer has been unbelievably hot and dry thus far after a very low snow winter (as evidenced when our seasonal pond dried up by June 10 versus July 10). So we wait and see and hope for the best and roll with the adaptations in tourist operations.
