Well, the woods are closed.

[Idaho45guy]

Just about all forested land over in Idaho, where I have been camping, fishing, and hunting on for 40 years is now closed to all vehicle traffic.

We are in an extreme drought in this area and have hundreds of forest fires raging all over the state. Can't say that I blame those in charge for closing down the woods.

https://pullmanradio.com/potlatchdel...public-access/

The new normal the past few years is not good around here.

Used to be you came out of winter in April or so and could start going into the woods at lower elevations end of April and into May. Mushrooms would start appearing first week of June, and that's when the warmer temps started and camping season began.

Higher elevations were still snowed in well into July, but the prime high-country recreation was in August and September. Camping season in most areas was from middle of June into August, when it started to get a little too dry to have campfires.

Normally, there was maybe 3 weeks of dry conditions in which you couldn't have a campfire in the woods.

Lately, the winter is over by first part of March. Then just cold, wet, and nasty weather into May. Then no rain for a month or more, with high temps. Still gets into the 30's at night but is dry and cold well into June. Then June gets hot and dry, and the woods are too dry to have a fire from middle of June until October.

I was going to buy a camper, but there really is no point these days. Camping season went from 4 months a year down to less than a month lately.

I've been on two UTV trips and one float trip this season, and now the woods are closed. Didn't camp once this year. Haven't even fished once.

The big advantage to living here was the incredible natural beauty and opportunities for outdoor recreation. Now, it is almost gone. Sad to see.

[rbuck351]

Not much better here in western MT. We are at level 2 fire danger. We can still camp but no fires, running chain saws requires a certain period of fire watch after operation and certain times of day are banned. But yeah, it has been getting drier earlier and staying drier later every year. Have had fairly heavy smoke in the air for the last month or so.

[John Wayne]

Just you wait till biden's BLM nominee gets in. She's the one who spiked the trees with her boyfriend and others. She will close all land permanently, no use of any kind except tree hugging and hiking.

[ourflat]

Sorry to hear……

[Gator 45/70]

Those Tifa types still setting fires out west?

[Markopolo]

i have been watching online, and very worried about you guys down there in the west, and in the northern plains.. over 1/2 of our produced food crops and hay are effected by this drought. can you say "prices"

[Dom]

I'm in W, Montana , Mineral County about 50 miles N. of Missoula. Our forest ,as of yesterday, was still open. A friend went in & got two pickup loads of firewood. So smokey you can hardly breath. Can't imagine how any one would want to camp in those conditions.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Those conditions are so oppressive. Was hoping for a motorcycle trip out to Spokane this summer but the weather situation out West is just too extreme. It has been hot and dry here too but about ten degrees cooler on average which makes it more tolerable. And we get rain about once a week too.

[EMC45]

Just you wait till biden's BLM nominee gets in. She's the one who spiked the trees with her boyfriend and others. She will close all land permanently, no use of any kind except tree hugging and hiking.

As opposed to the last administration that was opening up a lot of locked up Fed land to hunt and fish on.

She is a radical too by the way. I read an interview of one of the investigators who interacted with her personally. He said she was vulgar, violent and a nasty wicked person.

[MT Gianni]

Just 15 miles E of the divide we are getting ash from a fire 50-75 air miles distant. Not a great summer. My hope is that it drives the squatters back home but who knows.

[BJK]

Sorry to hear about all of that!

I don't remember where we're getting it from but our skies are white from wildfires out west. I sure hope you folks get the rain you need soon. And not all at once. A gentle rain would be nice for your water table.

The BLM nominee sounds like she'll fit right into the biteme administration. I can't think of any of them who I'd want to be around. I see them all as pure evil.

[ubetcha]

We even had hazy sky's here in Wisconsin due to the western and possibly Canadian wildfires. Sad to see this all burning.

[waksupi]

Tourists should figure out there is only around three weeks of nice weather in the west to enjoy things.

[dverna]

We have had "overcast" skies on bright days here in MI too but I believe mostly from fires in Canada.

Things are not looking good for many of the folks out west. Hope it turns around soon.

[jsizemore]

We've had fairly heavy haze in central NC from out west.

[BigAlofPa.]

Were having haze too from the fires. Scary thinking about how bad they are. Hope a nice steady rain comes soon for the west.

[Tim357]

We finally got enough rain in the high country to open the National Forests back up. I think most places have Stage 1 or no restrictions so far. The Phx metro got 2+ inches two days ago. We really need about 10 good years of wet winters and wet monsoon to get squared away. I don't know if any of you have seen Lake Mead larely but dam it's lookin ugly...

[jim147]

The airport in my county seat was reporting poor visibility this week. The smoke is riding the jet stream.

I wish I had a long enough hose to pump you some water. My pits are still high.

[gpidaho]

It's been one hot and dry early summer here in S.W. Idaho. The smoke from the fires in northern California and central Oregon have been a daily thing, Water's in short supply and the Snake river is very low. Will likely take the winter snow to finally put the fires out. As much as I hate winter, I hope we have a big wet one this year. Gp

[trails4u]

GP...I'll be 'visiting' your state here in just a few days... It's bad, guys...really bad. It's still July (early in fire season) and all three of our SE area fire management teams are already in MT and ID. We'll do our best for ya....but buckle up, it's gonna be a rough year.