When you look at the mosaic of fires that have burned over the last 20 years, it's probably very similar to what occurred in the 1800s. Not a whole lot of fires occurred in the wilderness from 1929 to 1985.

It's very similar in composition, with very similar textures when you look at it with a microscope, but it's dipping in all different directions. What it says is that the geology around here is pretty complicated.

Now almost 20 years later, we have trees that are 20 feet tall.

A lot of people felt very burned by that, and it probably underlies a lot of what's going on now. But ... somehow, someway, they've got to get together.

I'm always cautious to downplay range fires, because if it's your ranch building or grazing allotment that got burned up it's pretty important. But timber fires require a lot more people, equipment, time and money to put out, and so far even when we've had lightning ignition, we didn't get the large fire initiation.

We're probably going to give him a game ball come Wednesday when the team gets together. Bernard made tackles all over the place and was hustling around, playing his assignments probably as well as anybody on the team.