No, this is not a joke, the US government has just banned campfires on all public land across the entire state of New Mexico, in every national forest, as well as in parts of Texas and Oklahoma. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering just how on earth a campfire ban could possibly stop the spread of a virus - do trees get coronavirus now, too? :)
Well, no, they’re not trying to make that dumb of an argument, but rather claim this restriction has been put in place “to protect the health and safety of employees and communities during the coronavirus outbreak.” Do they not care about protecting the “health and safety” of such people and communities at other times? Was the “health and safety” of people and communities not safe and “protected” the day before this ban went into effect, and for the months, years and decades prior to that?
On April 15, it was deemed safe and legal to build a fire, but starting 5pm on April 15, all the way through June 30, it is apparently suddenly very dangerous and now ‘illegal’. The AP reported that:
They're taking the step to prevent the drawdown of fire and medical resources to unwanted human-caused wildfires and to reduce firefighter exposure to COVID-19.
This is what the authorities claim, but this is nonsensical, for the ban covers not only open fires but also grilling and using wood stoves, the latter of which certainly poses just about absolutely no threat at all as far as ability to start wildfires goes. I was not aware the ban included wood stoves when I set up my most recent campsite in northern NM on the Santa Fe National Forest right next to a creek in a green grassy meadow, which is quite damp, and was just covered in a foot of snow a week ago. The sign I saw simply said no campfires, and where I’m from, that doesn’t include wood stoves.
Plus there was no cell service for me to look into the matter further until I first went into town three days later on Monday, when I also noticed the attached official notices seen below, at a different forest service access point, where I stopped to use the restroom because the local gas station has banned entry to anyone not wearing a mask...
My wood stove piping is also fitted with a spark arrestor, so besides the fire being entirely enclosed, there is no chance of sparks big enough to start a fire to even escape! I have used this stove setup almost daily for weeks on end without starting a single wildfire, including many weeks in the dry desert and grasslands of southern NM and AZ, where conditions were much more conducive to starting a wildfire... And yet I am now an outlaw anytime I cook or heat my tent, simply by the arbitrary stroke of a pen and because April 15 has come and gone, now liable to receive punishment of up to $5,000 fine and/or 6 months imprisonment!
And yet for some reason using kerosene and propane stoves and lanterns are exempted, because apparently kerosene and all pressurized gas flames are magically incapable of starting wildfires!
Besides this, there are cabins on private land just up the road from where I am camped, right on the edge of forest service land, fitted with wood stoves, and despite the equal danger of causing a wildfire posed by them burning fires in their stoves (or even open fires in a fire pit for that matter), that’s not prohibited because those fires are not on public land and must somehow be ‘safe’.
Not to mention that the number one cause of forest fires isn’t campfires, but rather lightning strikes, followed by fireworks, and I would be surprised if ever a responsible and sober human being has ever started a wildfire by using an enclosed wood stove fitted with a spark arrestor! I’m pretty sure the chances of a fire starting from my use of this stove is far less than the entire human population contracting and dying from covid19, thereby immediately going extinct :)
Most wildfires that are started by campfires don’t even start from flying sparks anyway, but spread underground from fires that haven’t been completely drowned, as I long ago learned from a volunteer firefighter friend of mine. So even if the supposed ‘need’ exists to conserve firefighters for somehow combatting a potential future spike in covidf19 cases, the scope of this entire ban is nonsense!
However even this claim is bunk, for we are being told by media pundits that the lockdown measures have successfully ‘flattened the curve’, and yet the government is concerned about the curve spiking again!?! Maybe anticipating more ‘waves’ to come all the way through June!?! For some reason the Chinese lockdown was successful at stopping the spread in a matter of weeks, and yet two months isn’t long enough in America!?! And how will firefighters help ‘combat’ covid19?!? It’s about as silly and nonsensical as the US military declaring war on covid19!
Besides, since total number of deaths and hospitalizations hasn’t risen at all since last year, just more of them being due to covid19 instead of other causes this year, there really shouldn’t be any strain on the hospitals or for medical workers. And maybe if they truly anticipate a shortage of medical and other emergency workers to be able to handle a future spike in this so-called pandemic, then instead of banning campfires they should stop laying off medical employees!
And what’s with all the shutdown hospitals, open only for covid19 patients, not enough of which materialize?!? People are dying from other causes because entire hospitals are denying access to anyone without covid19, being shutdown for an anticipated spike in covid19 patients that never materialize, resulting in unnecessary deaths and totally empty hospitals, while elsewhere entirely new hospitals are being build solely for this outbreak. None of this makes sense, it doesn’t add up, and I hope it is becoming clear that all this really has nothing to do with stopping some virus that isn’t even as deadly as the common flu.
Unlike wood-burning fires of any kind however, Turkey hunting is apparently safe, and still in full effect, because hunters never accidentally shoot others and then take up time and resources of precious emergency workers (actually, they do...) Probably more likely reason for not shutting down hunting too is because hunting permits rake in the dough, where as campfires do not...
The forest service can’t stop people from littering, or illegally harvesting live trees for firewood, or cutting down live mature trees for no apparent reason, or vandalizing their own signs, or belligerent kids drinking and driving up and down forest roads while popping off live rounds out of their windows at 1am. But they sure can hand out fines when they do actually catch ‘violations’, such as responsibly using a wood stove, or fishing without a permit, or God forbid camping more than 14 days in one place on the very same public lands one is cleaning up after the others who illegally and without getting caught made a mess of with their incessant littering.
Government is not very good at stopping real crimes, but only at collecting money from the relatively peaceful and responsible people among us. Rest assured, the drunk idiots who make large bonfires and irresponsibly leave them burning when they leave won’t give a hoot about that new campfire ban anyway!
Similarly nonsensical was the NF shutdown of campgrounds because the virus could be spread on picnic tables and outhouses, while numerous trailheads and trails upon which gates must be opened and closed to access are open for use, because apparently the virus can’t be spread on gates but only picnic tables!
Even the NM Governor’s official executive order press release regarding his extension of the mandatory stay at home order was ridiculous. It said, I kid you not, that because the lockdown hadn’t prevented the further spread of covid19 in March, he was extending the order through the end of April! So he opted to extend the very same lockdown measures that admittedly weren’t working to stop the spread of the virus!
And there are even some cities in this state requiring masks in order to enter any establishment at all! All this in one of the states that has been least affected by the so-called pandemic. It has been quite affected by the scamdemic, however, and I wonder just how much further the authorities across the country are going to take this tyrannical insanity.
A follower of mine pointed out that this ban may be part of a broader agenda to dissuade people from leaving the cities for the great outdoors.
The madness ends when enough people stand up together and demand that it ends. They can’t arrest, fine, ticket and enforce house arrests on us all. If we all stand up and demand a return to normality and freedom, and begin acting in one accord towards that end, they will be helpless to stop such a return. If all small businesses decide to reopen, and people decide to no longer stay home and ignore social distancing, and all churches reopen their services, the authorities will be forced to acquiesce, for we the people have the numbers and the true power, not these spineless political puppets on a string enforcing the tyrannical ‘new normal’ in the Divided NWO Police State of America.