Every fire season in recent years has had its own character, and this one is no exception. The good news, and the bad news, is that we’ve endured this before. The unhealthy pall of smoke, the highway closures, the heightened awareness of fire danger all around us — we’re not happy about any of it, nor are we panicky. Been here, seen that — and aren’t particularly pleased to see it again. But we have learned to anticipate, prepare, cope and adopt a responsible attitude as a community.
That doesn’t make it easy. As we went to press, the North Cascades Highway was reported to be re-opening this week, with reduced speed limits, but its closure slammed the tourism season at what is usually its height, and businesses are suffering. You can tell just by driving around and noticing the difference between say, last weekend, and a few weeks ago.
Many of us are inconvenienced by the extra driving distance to the west side when the highway is unavailable. It’s time-consuming and, with gas at $5 a gallon or more, costlier. Others have serious smoke-related health concerns that keep them indoors, or masked while outside. Some activities have been limited or canceled.
All that said, it’s also important to take a perspective check when we’re feeling put-upon by the fires’ consequences for us.
We’re not being burned out of our homes, like the people in Medical Lake, or Hawaii, or Yellow Knife, Canada. We have lost no lives to fire, for which we are thankful. While the “winter route” to the west side is longer and Highway 2 has its usual gauntlet of summer construction projects to run, we can still get there if necessary.
And by the way, people over there can still get here when the highway is closed — just like they do all winter, by the thousands, in worse driving conditions, all the way to Mazama. We’re not cut off from the world. A few years ago, when the highway was closed in the summer, local tourism marketing campaigns amped up that message to keep potential visitors informed that we were still open to accommodate them. Another way we can help ourselves is to make an extra effort to support local businesses and events.
While the Sourdough and Blue Lake fires have compromised a major transportation route and closed popular recreation areas that we also enjoy, let’s not forget to have a thought for the firefighters who are taking on those blazes every day. It’s dangerous, exhausting work whose satisfaction rewards are incremental. They are standing between us and much worse outcomes from the fires.
If the Washington State Department of Transportation, in concert with the fire management team, concludes that it’s too hazardous for motorists to use the highway with all the fire activity going on, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt instead of second-guessing. The first priority has to be safety, for the firefighters and the public. Nothing is so important that it’s worth risking lives over.
There is still time for things to rebound. Our tourism season extends well into fall these days, the smoke may clear and the highway may stay open. False cheer or gloominess are both unproductive, but optimism costs us nothing. We’ve seen in the past that there is usually a pent-up visitor demand when access to the Methow is limited, and people come back when and if they can. The best thing we can do is be ready for them.
