Gila Wilderness fire Frequency

[Jim_H]

For those that care about such thing, the Gila Wilderness, which is a real wilderness, and not one of the BS ones like Secret Mountain, or Kendrick Mountain, has had a pretty high fire return interval over the last 30 years. Can't say before 1993, since I didn't really see any in my area of interest.

If you use the fire perimeter feature on the map page, and keep your crosshairs in the central Gila area, my area of interest being McKenna Park, loading the various shape files for the primary large fires over the last 30 years, you end up with fires in 1993, 2003, 2011 or 2012, 2016, and 2021. I know of at least 1 small fire in 2010, the Horse Fire which isn't on the list, but it was out there.

It turns out we do have GPS shape files well before the 1990s, it is just that m y area of interest didn't have any files, or fires. I do wonder when the area had fires before 1993.

Either way, the return interval went from 10 years, to 8 to 9, to 4 and 5 years. 4 and 5 years is a pretty good, and actually really good for keeping ponderosa pine an open, park like forest with a grassy forest floor. [ photo ] this area burned again since this member took this photo.

[ youtube video ] A local went on a ride through the Gila, grazing the NE part of McKenna in mid-July, right after the rain returned. Looks pretty good, and I bet it looked really great by September.

[xsproutx]

I was there in May for 3 days and then 4 days in September, with some overlap on the trails I took. For being only a few months apart, the two trips were wildly different; the monsoons had everything in "grow grow grow" mode for sure. I'm no forest expert but it definitely looked healthy.

[Jim_H]

@xsproutx
Any chance you have photos of the McKenna area?

[xsproutx]

@Jim_H
Sorry, no luck there; I mostly stayed on the forks and the mesa between the two. Next trip is when I plan on hitting up those more southern regions