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Posted by alan on February 12, 2008 at 2:33:49 pm EST
In reply to building a campfire - sometimes it's just not right posted by bheiser1 on September 11, 2007 at 7:08:52 pm EDT

I don't have a great deal to add here. I rarely make backcountry fires as much out of laziness as anything else. I don't see the topic as being absolutely right or wrong. I think there are less fragile areas in which fires can be made with minimal environmental impact, not zero impact, but minimal to a point of being negligible.

For the minimal fires which I rarely make I'm not going to worry about co2 emissions given I drove my car many hours to the trailhead, use a bunch of gear manufactured from petroleum products and on and on.

Several years ago I backpacked off trail in a densely forested area of Michigan's UP. We camped each night in areas that likely do not see many visitors in a five year period, if for no other reason getting to these locations was quite difficult. There were no signs of recent visitors. We didn't happen to make any fires on that particular trip - couldn't have if we had wanted to as it rained and rained and rained. However, had me made a small fire in such a location the environmental impact would not have been significant, especially if we took the time to disguise the fire area when done.

Now, if this location became a popular destination and many people were to backpack there and light fires, that becomes a different story altogether. Rules of thumb in one environment, say no fires in alpine areas, may not necessarily apply in others, say difficult to access thick forests with few to no visitors.

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