No fires in Uintas, This includes camp stoves. Seriously???

[JONBOYLEMON]

We are taking the Scouts to Grand Daddy this weekend and I called the rangers district to see if there was anything we should be aware of.

The nice lady said, YES, NO FIRES PERIOD. I asked about camp stoves to boil water, she said NO.

I asked again to clarify and sure nuff, no flame PERIOD. She said there will be a press confrence today.

Anyone have the lowdown on this? That really changes the game for us as it real hard to cook fish over a sunny rock!

What was ironic is she said there was still snow up there and that it was very muddy! So apperently its the dirt that is wet and the trees are dry.

[CarpeyBiggs]

no camp stoves? i've never heard of that restriction in my life... pretty ludicrous if true. more than likely that ranger is misinformed.

if true, there's gonna be a shitstorm over this.

[CarpeyBiggs]

wow. i just called the kamas ranger office, and they confirmed the ban is universal on all flames.

she also said "call back tomorrow, we hope to have the ban lifted on camp stoves by the weekend." which to me suggests somebody screwed up. i've never heard of a camp stove ban anywhere. certainly open flames i can understand, but this seems outrageous. a camp stove is far from an open flame.

we'll see what happens. no hot meals is going to keep a lot of people out of the mountains. or actually, turn lots of law abiding backcountry users into miscreants. can't imagine what it would take to enforce it.

[denaliguide]

apparently a camp stove is what started the fire last month up in the poudre canyon above fort collins.

[Scott P]

i've never heard of a camp stove ban anywhere.

It happens in parts of Colorado sometimes (when fire danger is extreme), especially in areas affected by pine beetle kill. During those times, not only are camp stoves banned, but so is smoking outside a vehicle.

[moffer]

Just 3 weeks ago a 8k acre fire was started here in CO when a camping stove was knocked over. Just an accident, but still happened. Though where this happened everything was extremely dry.

[JONBOYLEMON]

Dang Carpey, started reading your post and my mind lept to the conclusion I was wrong, until I finished reading your post.

But the last thing I want is to start a fire in a place I love, but it does seem very problematic to inform people of the ban as there are lots of access points to the high country and what about the people who have been up there all week and would have no way to know they were breaking the law?

[CarpeyBiggs]

it was obvious when i talked to her on the phone she'd had a few calls already, and she wasn't sure the camp stove ban was actually true. i can't find it anywhere, on any press release or official announcement.

my guess is there is some sort of miscommunication.

[stefan]

.

That really changes the game for us as it real hard to cook fish over a sunny rock!

.

how about ceviche?

[keithd]

The order can be found here:

http://www.fs.usda.gov/uwcnf

There is an exemption for a "stove or grill that is solely fueled by liquid petroleum fuels." Is that isobutane?

[Painted Horse]

Or here

Ban on all open flame on all public lands in Utah until further notice

http://www.utahfireinfo.gov/fire_res...ctions2012.pdf

[JONBOYLEMON]

Well I wont be packing a sheep herders stove with a spark arrestor or a 5' chimney!

I am interpreting exemption #2 to allow a backpack stove.

[bigred72]

Backpacking stoves are okay to use.

[DesertDuke]

I used to camp at Lake Mead every year. Camp fires were constantly banned because it was a drought year. One year it was wet and I thought "finally the ban will be lifted". That year the ban was listed "because of the growth from the wet year".

[dmMatrix]

So it looks like its been a few days since anyone has updated this thread.... I didn't click on any of the links that people posted because I just got off work and don't feel like clicking on links.

Is this going to be a permanent ban for the rest of the year? or is this just a temporary until we get some rain? I have a couple small trips planned but don't have a big trip to the uintas until the end of July.... 5 days without a campfire is going to suck hard.

[keithd]

I would expect the ban to be in place until the snow starts falling again. That's just what happens when there's such a bad winter.

I haven't built a campfire since I became friends with the guy who prosecutes forest fires for the feds here in Utah. It's amazing how many millions of dollars he gets out of people who accidentally cause forest fires. And he tells me horror stories of how there have been times that people have put out their fires, but roots below ground have started smoldering below the campfire that they don't know about, and the root catches fire and burns up to the tree, starting a forest fire. So it's not just irresponsible carelessness that causes these fires...it can also just be bad luck.

Not only is there the fear of being sued for everything I'm worth and then some, but I don't want to be responsible for destroying a forest. So I just don't risk a campfire in the Rockies.

[JONBOYLEMON]

Funny as I also know a guy involved in Forest Fires in Utah and he said that it makes a big difference when people are being as responsible as possible in if they go after someone or not.

Anyways, we had no fires on the trip and it sucked! Would have loved to cook up a few nice big brookies and cuts we caught! Oh well. It aint worth burning up the forest for a meal, but tell you what, as it was raining and hailing on us, it seemed like a great time to go back to camp for a fire.

[Sombeech]

What's the fine?

[dentedvw]

Are they going to ban cigarette smoking too? Sounds more reasonable than camp stoves, but I am not an expert, just a guy who watches careless people thrown burning cigarettes from cars all the time.

[JONBOYLEMON]

Heres a funny part of this story. While at Grand Daddy there was a guy from the DWR, yes an actual Fish Biologist dude, fishing the outlet of a stream the entire 2 days we were there. Cut after cut after cut. You couldnt help but catch them as they were spawning 4' away in the stream.

The boys were more perturbed than I was. I fully understand wanting to stay where the fishing is hot, and Saturday morning they mentioned they were going to get some breakfast so we waited a few minutes and then fished the honey hole for 10 minutes before we had to leave, but here's the funny part. They were camped right on the lake! They may have been 201' from the lake. There were lots of others this close as well. The signs every where were very clear 1200' from a lake! We were 3/4 of a mile from the lake and therefore spent a good deal of time walking to and from camp.

I really try and teach the boys proper etiquette and responsibility and dont claim to be perfect, but the more I am out with the Scouts, I think the more the scouts are some of the better stewards of the land. Yeah sure, there always the really bad example, but I am beginning to think Scouts have an undue bad rap.

The part I found most irritating was that a "enforcement type" would so blatantly break the rules.