Re: RC: Horse Starts Forestfire

[Lynn Kinsky <lkinsky@silcom.com>]

>> I have seen horse shoes throw sparks here in the Eastern Washington >
>desert,
>
>This is dangerous!!! I think the government should IMMEDIATELY set aside
>funds to remove *all* rocks from our trails...starting with mine. (Old
>Dominion can be next...and then maybe the New Mexico National
>Championship course.
>
>Angie

Not just the trails <g>:  many of our local fires are started in fields by
weed abatement mowers or blades striking rocks (once things dry out in
early summer weed abatement using hard steel tools becomes a crap shoot re
starting vs. preventing fires)!  We have lots of  sedimentary rocks -- and
hence lots of silicates such as chert, otherwise known as flint  (the stuff
that gets struck to make the spark in a lighter).  Any place wet enough to
let champion sponge throwers hone their skills probably doesn't have much
fire risk from little sparks no matter what the rock composition <g>.


Lynn Kinsky (Santa Ynez, CA)
http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky