[Artemisia] Fires, was Northern Region...

Julia Jackman-Brink julia.jackman-brink at umontana.edu
Mon Mar 21 08:34:07 CST 2005


Iohne MacDhaibhidh wrote:

Sorry, I am coming into this late.

> When I first moved here, this kingdom had two well attended events; Uprising and Griffon's Fury.  
> Griffon's fury has simply disappeared and been replaced with a vaporous promise of "a great northern war".

Both of which were technically BARONIAL events (although Fury was two 
baronies and a shire). They weren't Kingdom although they were attended 
but many.

Griffon's Fury passed away from two reasons.

First: Lack of an appropriate site. We grew too fast for our regular 
sites (which wouldn't rent to us after we reached a certain size) and 
many of the new options were dry sites which turned people off.

Second: Internal support structure. Lots of people came to party, but 
very few people actually WORKED it. Volunteers were hard to come by, 
even when we begged. It was the same people doing the dirty work and 
well, they got tired. The 3-group consortium made the decision to retire 
it when the two issues combined.

>  Unfortunately, nothing "great" has appeared to fill that void. 

Actually there has, I am sorry you missed it.

The new group of Northgate, (Shelby Montana) has organized an event that 
the original Fury team has thrown their support behind. It is the War of 
the Winds. The first one was last year. Although the site last year 
needed some help it was very well attended. They have secured a brand 
new wooded site this year down on the Marias River. (Private not 
federal). I would encourage all to attend. I know Avacal is coming. 
Watch for the event writeups. It is in August on the old Fury weekend.

> Now I know some are going to point at the fact that the wildfire conditions have 
> been the crux of the problem, but if one thinks outside of the box, you will be 
> led to ask "why not move it to a location that is less fire prone that may lie 
> outside of the goegraphic boundaries of the sponsoring group?" 

When one lives in a drought/fire prone STATE this is not always a viable 
suggestion unless you want to move to a semi-tropical wetland somewhere. 
  Those are rare in the US these days.

Frankly in the Northwest, if the fire season gets really bad, the 
legistlature will shut the entire State down to recreation whether the 
public likes it or not. It is a fact of life here. Looking outside the 
box, brings us to Idaho, BC, Alberta and Wyoming...all of which have 
similar problems and similar situations, usually at the same time.

The forecast for this year for the Pacific Northwest (including Idaho 
and Montana) is for a fire season of "Historic Proportions". If one 
thought 2000 was bad, a defining picture would be Glacier National Park 
this year...their upper road snow marker has a solid three INCHES of 
snow where it should be seven FEET this time of year. Washington State 
has already put rationing in place for the eastern side of the state. 
That's scary no matter how one looks at it.

Everyone who has summer events this year is scrambing to come up with 
secondary plans if the parks and forests close.  One learns to live with 
it. Alot of times there is no other option but to let Mother Nature win.

HE Juliana
4-Time Used Fury Autocrat




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