Posted on 05/01/2015 12:26:40 PM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — At the local level, seasonal winds and high temperatures are always cause for concern when it comes to the potential for an active fire season.
“We received a lot of rainfall during the monsoon last year, and we had a lot of moisture during the winter, but the problem that always exists here is that it gets hot, it gets windy and it dries out,” said Fry Fire Chief Bill Miller.
The only thing that would calm concerns would be unseasonably early rains in the late spring and early summer timeframe, which could reduce the threat from once-green vegetation that quickly turns into tinder from the spring winds.
“While the winter moisture allows the grasses to continue to grow, if we don’t see more, it’s going to dry out,” Miller said.
That exact scenario contributed to a 50-acre brush fire in March.
Half a dozen area fire agencies responded to the area of Old Spanish Trail to fight the blaze, which grew to a mile long and up to 300 yards wide in some areas.
“With that particular fire, we had some substantial winds. We were a little surprised, both with the high winds and the moisture content,” he said.
Residents can curb the risk of accidental fire starts by taking precautions when cutting grass and only conducting burns approved by local fire authorities.
And you can’t take away remaining water becuz of the delta smelts. /S
Is it just my crappy memory or did all this yearly wildfire crap start about the time Bubba stopped the logging on “public” lands? IMWK! d:^)
No loggging, and limited road access definitely made things worse. There’s been fires every year for a long time, though.
Gotchya. Ya reckon it’s always been that way and between more “civilization”, the internet/24hr news cycle it’s just more “known”? d:^)
There’s some of that, but I believe its worse. There’s more underbrush and dead wood. Loggers would clear a lot of that up. Harvest logging creates some supervision and benefit.
I did a little logging in Maine back in the day... and it was very different than what would happen on today’s government lands, because our trees were smaller—more pulpwood than big ‘uns. We cleared out the dead-wood, but left a hell of a mess of branches.
With no logging at all in a tall growth timber area of the West, however, you’d have a lot of standing dead wood. That’s especially true with our current policy of suppressing small fires rather than having some controlled burns. That means that when we can’t control a fire, it’s a very big fire.
When there is a lot of rain, the Forrest Service says the fire danger will be high because of all the new growth. Where there is very little rain, the Forrest Service says the fire danger will be high because everything is so dry.
The Forrest Service needs to be renamed The Self Service. Their dream is to ban everyone (except themselves) from all public lands because people are evil (except themselves).
All our hunt club land is paper company leased. I guess the roads act as fire breaks. They make a huge mess when they come thru cutting. But a coupla years later it full of new habitat and actually “livelier” than the older growth sections. d:^)
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