Flagstaff Forest Fire

[Tsalagi]

Well, ya'll remember that blizzard we had here this winter? (Well, two or three of them actually...) Six feet of snow in one night? Can't prove it ever fell here now. Yesterday, we had a huge forest fire break out behind Little America Hotel. Slurry bombers, P-3s from the Coast Guard, were coming in almost treetop right over Flagstaff to drop. That fire is almost out. Oh, how'd it start? Well, some award-winner saw dry forest, summer heat, high winds, and no moisture and thought dumping his campfire coals on the ground was a nifty idea. He's under arrest. It's only a misdemeanor, though. 

Well, I looked out the window today and bingo, another fire, right behind Mount Elden, in an area where people camp. This one is huge and very scary. Some hikers are missing; man, I hope they're ok or can get out. The forest service is going to talk about whether or not they should close the forest until the monsoon rains come. Gee, ya think? 

Peoples' homes are in danger, there have been evacuations. The fire appears to be heading away from where we are. And I bet this fire is another "Uhhhh.....I thought the campfire was out...." fire. Man, people need to learn some woodcraft.

My hat is off to the firefighters and those slurry bomber crews. Also to the crew of this Sikorsky Skycrane they've got working these fires with a dip bucket.

[Justin Snyder]

Read about the fire this afternoon. Sure going to ruin some good hunting habitat also.

[NTD]

Justin, unless this is a situation where there is an unsual fuel load and the fire burns TOO hot.  Fire is actually good for improving hunting habitat.  Course it may be an extreme fuel load due to 100% suppresion through the years and in that case the fire will burn too hot and ruin the habitat for just about everything for awhile.

[Justin Snyder]

Nate, I believe this is in the junipers. Fuel load will be high from the wet spring, combine that with the winds they have been having and it will be hard to stop the fire. Small burns are great, but when the entire area burns off it is rough on wildlife.

[Tsalagi]

This is a crown fire. It's jumping through the crowns of the ponderosas. With a crown fire, it's usually going to outrun the wildlife. What's bad is there are a lot of dead ponderosas courtesy of the bark beetle. Those go up like roman candles because they're dried, seasoned wood "on the hoof". I burned this wood all winter---it burns well, hot, and goes up quick.

I hiked through a place far east of here where they had a wildfire two years previous (the Jacket Fire.) It was like walking on the moon. Nothing grows there.

They do prescribed burns here and are thinning the doghair thickets, but it takes time.

[NTD]

I stand corrected.  There is some obviously unique factors going on there.  Hope those guys get it contained quickly.

[Lombard]

That is sad news. Nature seems to recover much faster than we imagine from those fires. I have been out there before going back to Phoenix from the Grand Canyon. Wanted to stop and ski at the Snowbowl, but couldn't get the rest of the group into it. Beautiful country out there.

[Tsalagi]

Nate, you are right about decades of fire suppression being at the root of this.  Basicaly, a healthy ponderosa forest is huge diameter trees spaced far apart. Fire plays its part by burning along the ground and clearing away tinder, deadfall, and the small diameter trees that would crowd the big whoppers eventually. Those fires never reach the crowns of the whoppers and the fire creates nutrients as well.

But what we have here is years and years of old-style logging where all the big whoppers were cut down and little diameter trees popped up like weeds and grow close together in what they call doghair thickets. Decades of fire suppression protected these doghair thickets. So, what we have now are fires that never really see much of the ground until much later in the life of the fire. What happens is the fire moves through the crowns of the trees, totally destroying them. These fires move as fast as the brush fires in Southern California. With a healthy ponderosa forest, the fires wouldn't reach the crowns of the trees. They'd be too high and they couldn't move through the crowns because the trees would be growing far enough apart.

The forest service here does a great job in forest restoration, clearing doghair thickets, and burning off stuff in prescribed burns. But there's so much forest here in need of work, they can't get everything. Once the forest is back to what it should be, they should be able to let fires run their course.

[stickbender]

     
     In 1910, in Thompson Falls, Mt. they had a fire that burned so hot, there is a large patch on the mountain where even grass and weeds have an extremely hard time growing.  It very barren.  It just killed the soil.   A regular, fire that burns on through, and is out soon, is a real benefit to the area, as there are some species of conifers, that need fires to open the cones for the seeds to fall out, and the new grass, and other buds coming up, draw the deer, and other species, in.  But a really hot fire with lots of fuel, fanned by winds, is like a blast furnace, and ruins the Eco system, like in Thompson Falls.  To this day, there are no trees on that ridge, or slope, and extremely sparse vegetation like a few weeds, and such, but nothing promising, and it has been a hundred years since the fire! 
An annual, or bi annual prescribed fire, depending on the growth rate of the vegetation, goes a long way, to preventing excess fuel load, and promoting a healthy Eco system, for the wildlife, and hunters.  I would think they would have a program to thin out the "doghair" thickets, and cut down some of the many smaller diameter trees, and let the larger ones continue to grow, and keep the area thinned of brush, and such that could cause a crown fire.  But if there are high winds, you will get one anyway.

                                                                            Wayne
                                                                          Wayne