HikeArizona.COM

Spring Fire
8pm 6/1, 1900 acres East side of North bound 87 at mile post 210.

@kelly14
The inciweb update has been posted reflecting the increase in size. There is no other new or notable information.

Pius managers just released a detailed map showing the perimeter. It is up to 1714 acres and 0% containment. Though the map shows a completed dozer line along a good portion of the south and southeast flank of the fire and the hottest areas burning along the north and northwest perimeters.

I am so glad the FS employs only devout and pius staff.

Positive sounding update:
[ youtube video ]

Meanwhile the Watch Fire has apparently burned some homes at San Carlos Res and much local hysteria around the Freeman Fire north of Oracle with reported 1,750 acres then a recent headline stating 26k acres burned. 0 containment, lightning start and nothing on inciweb yet.
Another source stating Freeman is the largest wildfire so far for Az 2024.

https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-i ... eeman-fire

It's a big boy. Maybe they will do a big boy press conference, later?

I am having trouble with the link. But a map is up for Freeman at over 28K acres now. Not too far from Hwy 79. Large subdivision to the south, Saddlebrook Ranch. Plenty of private inholdings but not a lot of structures in that particular area. Willow Springs is a historic ranch that evacuated.

RedRoxx44 wrote:I am having trouble with the link

https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-i ... eeman-fire
There's a nice map of the perimeter too.

We a couple of fires in the Superstitions started by last night's lightning. Lightning hit the ridgeline just to the north of 5057 and started a small fire, which I think burned itself out as I did not see it later in the night. There was a fire by Apache Lake near the turnoff to the Reavis TH, which they got forward progress stopped on this afternoon. Then there is the Black Fire that is currently burning near Pinyon Mountain at the Two Bar TH. Hopefully, they can get that one under control quickly before it gets down in those canyons.

Weird that June was fairly tame and had a lot of rain towards the end, and then July should be dry and active with fires.

Reported 13 homes lost and 75 people displaced at San Carlos. Devastating for that little community. Appears arson start then the monsoon storm pushed the flames.

There is a Go Fund Me to help the families who lost their homes in San Carlos from the Watch Fire https://gofund.me/6a587767. If you don't have it already, I highly recommend getting the Watch Duty app on your phone. It is free and it provides real time wildfire alerts. You can select which counties you want alerts for and then you will get notifications of all fires as soon as they start in your area. https://app.watchduty.org/

Black Fire near Roosevelt causing problems. Tonto national monument and others on Go status; Roosevelt Marina and Rv park area on Set status. 8K acres per inciweb.

Crud. That's not good.

Up in moist pine country, reports out of Flagstaff are that Coco will continue with restrictions until Mormon Lake reaches full pool.

chumley wrote: ↑Jul 15 2024 2:49 pm Up in moist pine country, reports out of Flagstaff are that Coco will continue with restrictions until Mormon Lake reaches full pool.

Is that about eight inches?

Fire up on the AFNM has grown to 20k acres, moving east and fast, started around Joes Hill, (Skelton Fire). Not much to burn but grass up there, but it will probably take out the last few remaining junipers, I imagine. Might make for some new archo finds this winter. I wonder how it will impact the pronghorn? For as heavily grazed as that area is, I guess it’s safe to say that the cattle don’t serve much of a role in wildfire prevention, as most ranchers claim…

FOTG wrote:I wonder how it will impact the pronghorn?

The one animal I would never question ability to outrun wildfire. But if there's no habitat remaining after, that could be an issue!

@FOTG
Pronghorn, being a native and still wild animal, are well adapted to grassland fires. If anything, I expect that they benefit from the fires. Fences can impact them more, as they slow movement and for some reason, pronghorn won't jump a fence, even if they are more than capable.

Cattle's reputation as a wildfire prevention tool is silly, to me. They are going to eat the best grass and do some browse, but they won't eat dry weeds or sticks from the invasives like cheat grass or tumbleweed. They definitely don't eat duff or dead down accumulations of fuels, as you would find in a forest. In the correct ecotype, they can help trample certain woody species and maintain a grassland, but Federal lands aren't exactly requiring regenerative grazing practices. Ranchers should drop that nonsense about cattle as a fire prevention tool, as they basically have to overgraze to be effective, and then only on an actual grassland.

I have not spent any real time on the Agua Fria NM, but the photos posted here make it look like a lot of exotics, primarily wild oat grass and cheat grass, both of which are Eurasian cool season grasses. Pronghorn appears to thrive on that range. This fire will have little impact given that they still have forage after a probable conversion from native warm season forage to exotic cool season forage. They must be able to browse, since there isn't much grass out there in summer, is there?

@Jim_H
I also wondered if it could improve the habitat for them, and yes, unless they like dried up invasive weeds of various types, I can’t imagine there is much to eat up there during the warm months. I wonder if a grasslands fire can help “reset” an area so to speak? As in allow the more natural vegetation to come back? Or I suppose that’s not how it works and the crap you don’t want just comes back?