Not the Burning Cedars

[ebonypearl]

Cedars and Iced Tree
Originally uploaded by nodigio

Somewhere north of here, a large number of cedars are burning.

The wind is from the north, shifting slightly from northeast to northwest, and the smell of burning cedars is covering more than 10 miles in an east/west direction. I have no idea how far north the burn is, how many cedars are involved, or how far south the wind is carrying the smell.

What I do know is that they've been burning at least 2 hours.

I wonder why, if it's that large and hte smell covers so much space, it's not mentioned on any news channel?

I love the smell of burning cedar, but I am concerned by this much smell cloaking the city (or possibly "cities" is a better term, as I live in a different city than I work and hte smell is in both my home city and my work city). How big is the fire? Who's in danger? Why does it still smell of fresh burning and not the fading scent of a dying or dead fire?

At least I'm not smelling the chemicals of house fires, so for now, at least, no homes are burning. Only cedars.

Comments

[laughterdance.livejournal.com]

Oklahoma is actually kind of fire prone, and lots of fires are set on purpose for land clearing during spring and fall. Cedars in particular are burned purposefully by land managers because it's a shrubby, invasive species which changes soil chemistry and burning is one of the very few effective removal methods. My guess is that it's a land-management burn done with legal permission from ODAFF and DEQ.

Fires tend to only be on the news if they are close to homes or if they are huge.

BUT... those who are signed up for DEQ's air alerts can get email warnings for heightened air pollution in their county from things like fires: http://www.deq.state.ok.us/AQDnew/AdvisorySignUp.htm (I used to send those out)

[laughterdance.livejournal.com]

...fires and smoke were my specialty when I was at DEQ.

[manycolored.livejournal.com]

They BURN cedars? Couldn't they at least cut them down, run them through a woodchipper, and mail the chips to me so I could burn them? I LOVE that smell!

[laughterdance.livejournal.com]

What people call cedars here are actually (almost always) a variety of juniper. Unless they get hugemongus, they don't have much wood. They're more fluff than not - a short, skinny trunk with a bunch of crowded, bushy branches.

[laughterdance.livejournal.com]

and they come back when you cut them down, most of the time.

[ebonypearl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know we're fire-prone, I just wasn't expecting a burn-off at 5:00 a.m. on a windy day - or to smell it 10 miles crosswind. Downwind, I could see.

[nezuchan.livejournal.com]

Wondered why my allergy symptoms flared up so much this morning, then I went out to get the paper & smelled the smoke.

Thanks for the link!

[(Anonymous)]

THAT'S why I can't breathe today! I'm HIGHLY allergic to ceder, and I find when someone burns them, it just makes it worse.

[wisdomofmoo.livejournal.com]

Huh - it logged me out. That last comment was me :)