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Archive 2012 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

normsmith

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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

About a year ago careless backpackers left a campfire with live coals. The result was the largest wildfire in recorded history in AZ. Over 500,000 acres burned. A year later scenes like this are common in the White Mts. of AZ.

A Dead Skyline

Jul 27, 2012 at 08:53 AM

twistedlim 2-time assignment winner

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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

Nice shot, story and lesson. I remember hunting throught a burn area once. We came out black as coal. Thankfully these areas re-grow pretty quick. (not by human standards)

Jul 27, 2012 at 01:03 PM

normsmith

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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

twistedlim wrote:
Nice shot, story and lesson. I remember hunting throught a burn area once. We came out black as coal. Thankfully these areas re-grow pretty quick. (not by human standards)

Thanks Rich. This particular area can e dealt with because it is fairly accessible and be managed and perhaps come back in 100 years or so. But many thousands of acres are in very inaccessible locations and with the dead but still standing "doghair" pine and aspen trees. Unless these trees are removed or dealt with in some way, they fall and become fuel for other fires. Stands of larger trees can be salvage logged profitably but these skinny trees aren't worth the effort. I don't know what the Forest Service has planned.

Norm

Edited on Jul 27, 2012 at 04:39 PM · View previous versions

Jul 27, 2012 at 03:01 PM

robert829
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

nice one here norm

Jul 27, 2012 at 03:53 PM

Klaus Priebe 28-time assignment winner

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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

Very nice shot but sure sad to see this destruction of the forest due to careless people.

Jul 27, 2012 at 05:30 PM

normsmith

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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

robert829 wrote:
nice one here norm

Thanks Bob,
Norm

Jul 27, 2012 at 05:46 PM

normsmith

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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

Klaus Priebe wrote:
Very nice shot but sure sad to see this destruction of the forest due to careless people.

Thanks Klaus,

My sadness is compounded because my late wife and I spent many wonderful times camping in those mountains.
Norm

Jul 27, 2012 at 05:49 PM

Hightraxx

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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

I'm sure you will see others like this, but when growth returns there probably will be more wildlife and better growth to the forests, people should be more careful when they leave a camp fire with live coals still smoldering.

Norm

Jul 28, 2012 at 10:22 AM

normsmith

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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

Hightraxx wrote:
I'm sure you will see others like this, but when growth returns there probably will be more wildlife and better growth to the forests, people should be more careful when they leave a camp fire with live coals still smoldering.

Norm

Norm,

I suspect the 2 guys who started this fire will be more careful after they get out of prison and recover financially from the hefty fine.
Norm

Jul 28, 2012 at 11:13 AM

James Markus 23-time assignment winner

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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

What a sad sight. Green is such a rare thing in Arizona - I hope it re-grows quickly.

Jul 28, 2012 at 06:50 PM

normsmith

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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

James Markus wrote:
What a sad sight. Green is such a rare thing in Arizona - I hope it re-grows quickly.

James,

Yes, it is a sad situation. The forest type, with Ponderosa pine, the dominate species, is naturally fire tolerant. But, in the last 60 years or so, natural fires (lightning started) have been surpressed when ever possible. This has allowed the younger trees to grow tall enough that now fires "crown" and reach the mature trees. This means the fires are monsters travelling at unstoppable speed.

The previous natural fires would only travel along the ground, thinning out the smaller trees and dead wood and brush. It has become clear, in the last few years that previous fire control management has caused the current problems. It will take upwards of a 100 years or so to get back to where these forest to a less destructive situation. At least now. management in these forests will be better.
Norm

PS, Arizona has a lot of green at the higher elevations, when it isn't burned

Norm

Jul 28, 2012 at 07:55 PM

James Markus 23-time assignment winner

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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

I'm from Michigan, Norm. When I lived with a Chicano family on a cultural exchange back in the 70's - I longed for soft green things that didn't stab ya.

Can you still swim on the mountain near - I think it was called Sabino canyon? (It was surrounded by cottonwood trees - and the guys that brought me there were diving off rock towers into 30-36" deep water. I told them then...."we don't do that in Michigan - you'll break your neck".

Jul 28, 2012 at 09:30 PM

normsmith

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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

James Markus wrote:
I'm from Michigan, Norm. When I lived with a Chicano family on a cultural exchange back in the 70's - I longed for soft green things that didn't stab ya.

James,

Yes, Sabino Canyon still has water, cottonwoods, and idiots

Speaking of idiots, about a week ago a 28 year old man (drunk) jumped into a pool in a nearby canyon at Tanque Verde Falls and was seriously injured.
Norm

Jul 28, 2012 at 09:47 PM

birdied

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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

How tragic , one thoughtless act. NIce shot Norm.

Birdie

Jul 28, 2012 at 11:02 PM

normsmith

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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

birdied wrote:
How tragic , one thoughtless act. NIce shot Norm.

Birdie

Thanks Birdie, I appreciate your comment.
Norm

Jul 28, 2012 at 11:18 PM

TweakMDS

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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

It all looks to be sprouting up nicely. Thanks for posting this... Images with a story behind it always have more impact.

~Michael

Jul 30, 2012 at 07:05 AM

Tenn.Jer
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

Good entry here, there's no mistaking that fire aftermath skyline; it reminds me of scenes in Yellowstone Park, when I visited soon after the fires of 1988...but I was there in '09, and recovery is slow but inevitable. Burned over hillsides and valleys carry the scars in their jumbled piles of tree trunks, and new greenery has begun to cover it all, after almost 25 years...
Jerry

Jul 30, 2012 at 10:18 AM

normsmith

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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · #512 Aftermath Skyline

Tenn.Jer wrote:
Good entry here, there's no mistaking that fire aftermath skyline; it reminds me of scenes in Yellowstone Park, when I visited soon after the fires of 1988...but I was there in '09, and recovery is slow but inevitable. Burned over hillsides and valleys carry the scars in their jumbled piles of tree trunks, and new greenery has begun to cover it all, after almost 25 years...
Jerry

Thanks Jerry, I also remember the Yellowstone wildfire and how slowly the recovery is. What people don't seem to understand is the immensity of the Az fire and how remote and inaccessible much of it is. The, to quote your comment, " jumbled piles of tree trunks" is a real problem. After only 2 years it becomes salvageable. It is a source of disease and detrimental insects. More importantly it is a fuel source for future wildfires. The fact that some plants start regrowth quickly does not mean the area will recover soon to a climax forest or even a late seral stage of succession.
Norm

Jul 30, 2012 at 11:00 AM


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