2014 Fire Season

[outdoor_lover]

And so it begins....The Secret Fire...Luckily this was addressed quickly...We are seriously going to be paying for our Dry Winter....

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/high-w ... 963f4.html

[The_Eagle]

Sitgreaves Complex Fire Video -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0QKAhO1ZSE

[chumley]

@The Eagle
That's a thing of beauty. Looks exactly how a fire should burn through a ponderosa covered mountain!
Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about fire management, so what I think a fire should look like might be 100% wrong from what knowledgeable and educated people think.

[Jim]

@The Eagle
That's a thing of beauty. Looks exactly how a fire should burn through a ponderosa covered mountain!
Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about fire management, so what I think a fire should look like might be 100% wrong from what knowledgeable and educated people think.

Oh, Chumley. :roll: :SB: :bdh: :kf:

No, I kid. Seriously, I agree, it does look pretty good. They are using aerial ignitions as needed to keep the fire backing off slopes rather than potentially heading up them.

[azbackpackr]

Here is my exciting day at the location of the Battle Fire!
http://hikearizona.com/photoset=31225&start=0

[Jim]

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3999/

The fire is being used to do what fire does. As a result, there is an area closure for parts of the Rincons. I love this, as while I had no plans to hike over there any time soon this summer, after monsoon season ends, I did plan to head over at some point in the early to middle fall before it got cold up high and the days too short. I see from maps this is near Mica Mountain, and not Rincon Peak. Should be 12 to 15 mile RT hike from Turkey Creek TH, if hiked as a day.

Also, I guess the lookout operator at Lemmon Rock Lookout is getting a free steak diner from one of the FS rangers. He said that he was told fires never start and spread over in the Rincons, and they were known as the asbestos range. As a result, one of his sups told him if there ever was a fire, he would buy him (the lookout operator) a steak diner.

[Jim]

Not the impressive 4000+ acres of the Sitgreaves Complex, but the Deer Head continues to make some progress and is over 550 acres. It continues to back down the east slopes of the Rincons, and slowly heads westward over 8400' on the range. 640 acres is 1 square mile, and even though the fire is not a square (the area looks like a Peep) it may end up treating a lot of the forest cover up there, which I see as great. I think I shall have to head up there this late summer to fall and explore it.

I believe the Turkey Creek Trail # 34 is the best option to do so, but I am unsure of the other trails in the vicinity.

[Jim]

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOC ... 808245.mp4

Put your aluminum hats away, wipe that foam from your mouth, sit back, relax, breath deeply and enjoy a short video on the "controversial" Oak Fire from last month.

[chumley]

If you know me even a little bit, you know I'm not opposed to snarky comments, but this topic seems to have touched some nerves, so I tend to err on the side of politeness. We may disagree, but we can all still be friendly to each other.

Thanks for the video link. It is interesting to the point it stops working for me. I tried to view it directly from the Coronado website, but the same error occurs (frozen video and no sound) somewhere along the way. Is that happening to only me?

I was hoping this fire would be a productive, healthy burn. I think if you are skeptical of what the FS reports that this video will probably not change your mind since they made it. It will be interesting to see what things look like once the area is opened and we get some firsthand reports and photos.

[azbackpackr]

snarky R US.

[Jim]

If you know me even a little bit, you know I'm not opposed to snarky comments, but this topic seems to have touched some nerves, so I tend to err on the side of politeness. We may disagree, but we can all still be friendly to each other.

Thanks for the video link. It is interesting to the point it stops working for me. I tried to view it directly from the Coronado website, but the same error occurs (frozen video and no sound) somewhere along the way. Is that happening to only me?

I was hoping this fire would be a productive, healthy burn. I think if you are skeptical of what the FS reports that this video will probably not change your mind since they made it. It will be interesting to see what things look like once the area is opened and we get some firsthand reports and photos.

I think the previously active member will always be active, and my "snarkiness" isn't directed her. I think the other guy will never return. I think with his posts, I can get away with a little sarcastic humor at his expense.

In terms of the video, it explains for the average person a bit about what they were doing. The key point I made and they made, is the current conditions are not natural, they are a relic of suppression, and it is better to have a lesser evil than the worst of it.


----------------------------------
I look forward more to reports and hiking (hopefully) the Mica MT area, and in the Rincons. I really want to see what that ends up looking like. It is my understanding, based on several sources that cite multiple fires in the Rincons over the last 100 years, that the Mica Mountain area appears very similar to how it did 150 years ago. Perhaps also it was never logged and therefore looks a lot like the central pine parks in the Gila Wilderness. That is my hope.

[CannondaleKid]

Thanks for the video link. It is interesting to the point it stops working for me. I tried to view it directly from the Coronado website, but the same error occurs (frozen video and no sound) somewhere along the way. Is that happening to only me?

I had the same thing happen. So I went right to where the file was downloaded and opened it up with something other than the Apple QuickTime player and it worked great.

Well worth the effort to watch the whole thing.

[FOTG]

Fire on Four Peaks, flashing board says do not report, hope i did not just break law

[chumley]

@friendofThundergod
Old news. Started a week ago.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tonto/new ... PRD3811187

[FOTG]

@chumley
Old news you looked up after I text ya ;)

Felt one of HAZers 75 volunteer fire watchers would have posted by now, at least no less than a six page sermon by the forest service's voluntary spokesman, Jim H was expected

[Tough_Boots]

I believe one went as far as to give us an aerial report:

http://hikearizona.com/photoset=31319

[FOTG]

@Tough_Boots
So it appears I was a little late to the show on this one...oh well what's new

[Jim]

Nah, 4 Peaks doesn't interest me.

[Jim]

The Kaibab conducted some burn out operations on Sitgreaves yesterday and the burned acreage is up over 10,000. The Hammer, nearer to the GCNP property line, is up near 8,900 acres. The Deer Head, is going very slowly, but it is going, at least, and is near or over 1,100 acres (waiting on a NPS update). The images for the Hammer look great, and if anyone is up there in the next month, it might be worth checking out. Unless there is a gate, accessing the Hammer from the east park road just east of Grand View Point, and a curve in the road (see maps on inciweb) should be pretty easy.

[Jim]

The Kaibab says the McRae and Hammer Fires are "done", and here is proof:
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/photograph/4023/0/

No word on the other important managed fires, yet.

[Jim]

So, I'm going to borrow a phrase from Joe.

While many folks have been bellyaching about fire in the state this spring and summer, the role of fire as a natural force is well established and it's use as a management tool with a strong ecological role is well established. In light of this, the Kaibab National Forest has really impressed me. I don't know what happened to the few on the Coconino or other NFs around the state and region, but the Kaibab has hosted over 29,000 acres of wildland fire this year, and could easily have over 30,000 acres of forest host fire if they complete some decent prescribed fires this fall, or if the Sitgreaves were to become active (extremely unlikely), and this has all been south of the GCNP. Included in this is a recent one near the South Rim, the Belknap which is complete and was over 2600 acres, but seemed to be unnoticed by most of us here despite it impacting the AZT.

While these fires were scattered about, this sort of acreage is exactly what I have previous talked about as being necessary to have a sustained and regular fire interval over the forest. Though they were also lightning ignited, and given that lightning is a fairly random event, the use of this ignition source to manage the forest with fire could start to establish a regular return interval over the long term time scale, probably with a mean establishing itself over decades with some areas burning less intensely, more frequently, and being grassier, and others burning more intensely and less frequently and possibly having higher tree densities, or higher densities of shrubs or shrub like trees such as gambel oak, juniper and so on. Increased use of prescribed fire to fill in the gaps and increase frequency in areas which had not burned within a designated return interval, largely due to planning boundaries for these managed fires creating a mosaic of burned and unburned compartments on the landscape, could help to broaden the area of forest affected by lower to moderate intensity fire and create a more historical and natural appearing forest. Also, due to the highly fragmented nature of the landscape from roads which are fire breaks to lower intensity fires and managed fires, road removals (very unlikely) and the creation of larger burn compartments could also help increase the size of these manged fires when they do happen in a given area, thereby reducing the need for prescribed burns in the more isolated parts of the forest, and away from towns.

I digress. Kudos to the Kaibab, and I'm impressed.