HikeArizona.COM

So, I was scanning around in sat view, and noticed this weird tree pattern south of Munds Park: http://hikearizona.com/map.php?MY=14410&M=5

It does not look like reforestation, because in that the trees tend to be in rows. Instead, it is the lack of trees that is in rows. Any ideas?

I've seen this pattern, and ones similar to this throughout the state. My guess is it's one style of forest thinning/timber harvesting, which doesn't remove all the trees, but cuts down areas due to the machinery needed to efficiently harvest the timber.

Yeah I've always been curious about that myself, thanks for bringing it up.

Range management is my best guess. Cows eat grass and grass doesn’t grow under trees. Ranchers use bulldozers to knock the trees down so the grass will grow and they can feed more cows. Sometimes they link two bulldozers together with a large chain or cable and make wide swaths up and down hills. They usually go up and down so bulldozers don’t roll and the trees are easier to push. A few trees are left to give wind breaks and shade.

As I mentioned in the original thread from a few years ago, I've been to this area to look at it. The ground is extremely rocky. I would say bouldery. There is absolutely no sign of any vehicle having driven through it (and to do so would be an incredible chore).

I just did a quick sketch of part of the pattern. When viewed over the topo map, it is apparent that all the cuts are exactly in the fall line of the various slopes in this area. Meaning all the cuts are straight up/downhill. From peaks and ridges to a drainage below.


http://hikearizona.com/map.php?MY=14425&M=6

Yeah I had noticed that earlier today also. It's almost like a herringbone pattern coming off the ridge lines.

What is also weird (note spelling, ahem) is 2 miles east of Franks Tank is this odd pattern at Blind Lake Tank. I haven't wrapped my head around this either. I've turned it all different directions and still don't see the hidden codex.

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but I see many such areas from planes. They cover vast areas and occur in other states besides AZ. The first notion that pops into my head is "failed suburban development", but the total acreage I've seen says that can't be right.

Alien subdivision that never got funding approved...

They're just some sort of equipment row from sort of work, that's all.

It has to be some kind of thinning or logging. It wouldn't cover such vast swaths if not.

Whatever it was, it was probably a long time ago, judging by the cover today. Someone could always ground truth it. These sort of things are literally all over the US, from logging roads, and row thins, to fracking and oil wells, to central pivot irrigation circles, if there is one thing that impresses me more than their presence, is how little natural land is left in the US, and how we in the west and SW seem to have a lot of natural land. We don't have big clear cuts, the way some places in the west that are very rural, but dominated by forestry do.