HikeArizona.COM

http://hikearizona.com/photoset=13153&start=0
This place is now barbecued. A fire started on the east-southeast side of Mount Diablo here in the East Bay that has grown to 3,700 acres with 20% containment after it began yesterday afternoon.
Our spring was average in terms of rainfall, but winter was way below in terms of precipitation so I'm sure it's bone-dry up there. It's mainly manzanita chaparral interspersed with oak woodland in rough terrain. It looks like this one is going to be remembered for a long time.

@Jim Lyding
I heard about that one on the news here in Phoenix this morning. My uncle said he can see it from Marin County.

@Jim Lyding Wow, I hadn't heard about that. I've spent a good bit of time working in that area.

What a shame....

Oh, come on people. Manzanita is a fire-adapted shrub. It is supposed to burn. Let's not get back to Bambi mentality. Speaking of Bambi, after a big chaparral fire there will be a regrowth of new shoots from the roots, plus lots of annuals after spring rains, giving lots more good forage for Bambi's family.

The huge Laguna Fire of 1970 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Fire darkened the skies of my hometown, San Diego, for weeks causing a blood red sun at noon, ashes falling from the sky. The rebirth after this fire was amazing. According to my community college biology teacher there were plants that were not known to have grown in that area which came up after the fire. Chaparral is fire-adapted, and in order to be healthy it must burn. It should burn about every ten years or so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ecology We were taught, even then, back in 1974, to know that fire in the chaparral is good. People who build their houses in the chaparral beware, for it is a fire ecology, and cannot be healthy with out a good dosage of burn every few years.

Fire IS necessary in chaparral communities, and I agree with Lizbeth that people who build homes there do so at their own risk. The fire danger on the east side is (was) much worse because it's too steep for cattle. The west side is grazed pretty regularly, but there are still large areas of chaparral so the danger isn't as great there. The west side is also the side that faces Walnut Creek (a 1/2 mile or so from where I type) and vicinity. I would be in favor of controlled burning all over Diablo, especially if the wind is coming out of the west
People freak out about wildfires a lot more here in California than back in Arizona, and I'd guess it's because so many of the big wildfires here have taken place in close proximity to large cities.

The burned area looks nice. I figure people freak out in CA more than AZ, for the same reasons they do in the east, an greater urban population.

Jim_H wrote:The burned area looks nice. I figure people freak out in CA more than AZ, for the same reasons they do in the east, an greater urban population.

That's only a small portion. The burn area to the south is much larger, but probably beneficial in the long term. It's not beneficial to my allergies, however!

There must be some BBQ beef out there.