The global warming farce doesn't have anything to do with this.  It is the fault of the tree huggers, and moonbat enviro nuts.  The same problem occurred in southern California in the Big Bear area.  Too many dead trees and under  growth that the enviro nuts wouldn't let be cleared.  Their "green" policies have come back to bite them.

Late June here in NE Ohio ... Gonna be 90+ today.  I'm heading over to my DOD's pool and drink in the rays and temperate pool water.  Ah! Global warming! What a life!

It'll be a great memory to keep me warm during the 2007 NE Ohio winter in a few months.

A similar situation happened in the Boundary Waters area along the Canada/MN border. 

There was a public debate as to whether or not roads should be built so crews can enter the BWCA and do fire prevention/control work.  I'm not sure what the status of the debate is, although the local media has been pretty balanced about it for the most part.

Here in San Diego County back in October 2003, we had a little thing called the Cedar Fire. It consumed 280,000+ acres, 2,200+ homes, and 15 lives... I followed it with my video and still cameras from 7:00am until it started to mellow by 6:00pm. It came to within 100 yards of my home. In my little town we lost 56 homes. Within 1 mile of my home they lost over 250 homes. Due to a little critter called the "gnat-catcher", people in the county have been fined for clearing brush and dead trees off of their own property. Even after the fire, people who clear their property face stiff fines. Apparently the gnat-catchers habitat is more valuable than the potential loss of life and property. Anyone who has ever witnessed a demonstration of a Christmas tree being ignited and going up in seconds will understand the ferocity of the fires in Tahoe. A little common sense should tell the environmentalists that when there is a bomb waiting to go off, somebody should be allowed to de-fuse it... My heart goes out to the people who lost their homes in Tahoe and my respect and appreciation goes out to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to fight those fires.

"I used to be disgusted, but now, I try to be amused..."- E. Costello

Sorry, all you global warming/climate change alarmists: wildfires have been occuring since before history began...even without the influence of mankind.  If you research the history of the Yellowstone area, you will find that there have been fires there that burned several hundreds of square miles.  This is the way that nature forces succession of flora.  For that matter, many species of pine trees cannot reproduce without a fire occurring.  The pine cones are coated with a thick waxy substance that must be melted before the cone can spring open and disperse the seeds.

In a scenario where mankind is absent, the dead trees and underbrush build up until there is a lightning strike or spontaneous combustion.  Once this occurs, the land is burned clear and other plantlife begins a cycle of succession.  Nature is never static, so the attempts of the environmentalists to preserve nature at a certain point in its cycle are useless at best, or harmful at worst.  The Tahoe fire is just an example of this misplaced belief in an optimal state of nature.  Global warming has nothing to do with this fire.  If the enviros want to maintain the Tahoe area in a parklike condition, then dead trees and underbrush overgrowth must be cleared, and roads to facilitate firefighting must be built.

"A communist is someone who reads Marx.  An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx."  Ronald Reagan