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Taken today at the entrance to the Ponderosa Campground East of Payson. Was advised it was a controlled burn on the Black Mesa Ranger District.

There was a much larger and scarier looking cloud north of the Peaks this week from another controlled burn. Burning pine needles put out lots of smoke.

This article (http://azdailysun.com/news/local/flagst ... 0265b.html ) points out that the precipitation in northern AZ has been above average. But because a lot of it came as rain and it's been so much warmer than normal this spring, things are drying out quickly.

(I know it's gauche around here to bring up climate change around here--denial ain't just a river...--but this is why climate change is going to be a big problem for Arizona's forests. Even if we get "normal" amounts of precipitation, above-average temperatures mean that fuels get drier than they would otherwise, and you get more fires. And, of course, it's probably going to get drier at the same time. Fun times ahead.)

In a recent article in the Arizona Daily Star, an Arizona State Forester is predicting a "normal" fire season in high elevation forests, but an "extremely busy" fire season in mid-level chaparral and low level desert grasslands especially in Southern Arizona
http://tucson.com/news...

Driving out of Madera Canyon during the noon hour today we couldn't help but notice a smoke plume that appeared to be coming from the Box Canyon vicinity. According to the Green Valley News the wildfire broke out at 11:55am and already grew to 860 acres by 2:30pm. Inciweb now reporting 1,500 acres. Right now the fire is in grasslands on the Santa Rita Experimental Range and seven fire agencies are battling. Firefighters are conduction back burns to protect Madera Canyon. I suspect that Box Canyon Road (FR 62) is closed. Updates here: https://inciweb.nwcg.g...

The irony of fire suppression on an experimental range is overwhelming.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5205/

Don't get this one, in the Santa Teresas' , wildfire, full suppression maybe near some significant ranch buildings??

@RedRoxx44

Full containment at end of shift June 5.

That should help.


Seriously, what don't you get?

Not letting it burn and managing it??? Wonder what happened with the funding or maybe staffing is low and they do not have a burn plan in place for this wilderness. The FS seems to like letting the natural start fires do their thing and then help it out a little or a lot. Not so for this one. Putting it out seems like the old fashioned FS thinking. That's my point, I have no trouble with reading comprehension.

@RedRoxx44
Was there a point in that post? How do you expect people to interpret your incredibly vague post?

Perhaps, instead of writing choppy sentences with no punctuation between thoughts, or single words broken by a comma, write something that expressed a clear idea. You might have no have no trouble with reading comprehension, but that is not at all clear from your earlier post. To me, you just look like you're trolling for something. Added: Part of why I say trolling is because the quality of your writing has diminished to the extent that is resembles Brian's (AKA Dude's) writing from a few years ago, and I suspect that Brian, not Letty is posting under the RedRoxx44 username.

I would be fascinating to me to see some of the fire management plans in the files of the FS and other agencies that manage public lands.

It certainly seems as if there are areas where managers are just waiting for a naturally-caused fire to implement a "managed" burnout.

Without that data it's difficult to make any determination other than to wonder why one area is allowed to burn for "resource benefit" while others are contained quickly.

I have zero data to back this up, but I suspect the fires that are allowed to burn may be influenced by the current resources available. If there are a handful of other managed fires burning already (or unmanaged wildfires), a new fire may be suppressed quickly even if it is in an area that could use fire (and has a plan on the books) if resources are already assigned to other fires.

But what do I know?

Well, anyone who is actually interested can go to their local FS offices and request to look at the different management plans. There ought to be one for fire specifically.

It would be a great help and be required that the land managers provide the index codes and file titles. When you request a FOIA request if it does not match the file name, then a no record found is the usual reply.

@Jim_H
Who appointed you grammer police? A bit freakin' harsh, dude.

Yay!!! Successful Trolling!

Seriously, the original post of mine in this thread was disjointed, but at that time I was in a hurry and just wanted to throw the thought out there. And it achieved my goal, getting people to look at it and maybe think about it. Chumley is the eloquent one, I'm not.
Jim_H I actually enjoy your responses as you do have some expertise in the area. Anything to keep the conversation going; I am learning to grow a thick skin for interacting around here. It helps that I don't really care what anyone thinks of me; the subject is so much more important.

RedRoxx44 wrote: Chumley is the eloquent one

I've been called a lot of things by a lot of people. Not sure I've heard eloquent before!

chumley wrote: Not sure I've heard eloquent before!

It's like a hippopotamus, only bigger, with a long nose.

That's a chumley - check the avatar ;)

Noted this fire late this afternoon around 5 pm at the base of the Mogollon Rim looking North from the Payson Airport. . As of this posting not on the Incident web site.

I heard it was near Bonita Creek and they were throwing everything at fighting it.