Arizona's new wildfire

[Peterthecactusguy]

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3437/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; it's burning near Prescott, and likely in the range of Echinocereus yavapainesis, and many other plants.

[RichR]

Very disheartening to see any more fires in the West. And the climatologists say this drought could continue through 2020, if not longer.

[Peterthecactusguy]

Rich, I have heard that too, but I have also heard that do to climate change the west might actually get much wetter and less hot in the future. IDK. BTW latest info is that it is human caused, and possibly was started by target shooters. Wonder if they were shooting at cactus?

[RichR]

Well, I would take wetter and cooler any day. I hope you're right, PTCG.

[Peterthecactusguy]

hahaha Rich, I hope so too, but I dont want it to be too cold or wet. Lows in the winter are trending lower.. But who knows might just be a bad last 3 years or so.. And btw the good news? the fire burned 36 acres yesterday.

[promethean_spark]

California habitats are supposed to burn, so I don't cry for our flora/fauna when it happens (folks homes is another thing). As I understand it non-native grasses make AZ more fire-prone than it has been historically in some areas. If this is one of those areas it could be hard on the plants, but if it's mainly the original mix of species they will probably be okay. Fire is natural, and in many cases habitats actually suffer from lack of fire because we keep putting them out! Certain species can only germinate when exposed to fire, for instance.

[Peterthecactusguy]

PS, yes and no. The problem in Arizona, is that non-native species, most of which were introduced by ranchers, burn at a much hotter tempeture then teh native vegatation burns at. Due to incrouching homes built by people who don't understand AZ's climate, fires are often put out instead of allowed to burn. Two fires stand out in where houses were put before nature, the first was the Cave Creek Complex fire, which was a disaster, and the other was a success in southern AZ, somewhere closer to Tuscon. The Cave Creek Complex fire was allowed to burn through areas where lots of non-native hot burning grasses were located to save a few homes. The fire was the third largest in AZ history. Some of these fires are ok, but not the ones that burn so hot it melts the rocks and creates run off problems, much like the CCCF, which killed the tallest saguaro in the world. As for other damage to plants here on Perry Mesa, and Black Mesa, there were some Echinocereus yavapaiensis, growing. All of them were killed in a massive grass/wild fire that burnt through the area. I remember when it happened the news media talked about two things ONLY, the inconvenience that the fire shut down I-17 and that a rancher lost a few cows.. The bias in these fires is towards ranchers (who created these problems 100 or more years ago, and haven't solved them) and towards the wealthy people that want to drive from Phoenix to points north EVERY weekend in summer, because Phx is too hot. That is the crux of the issue I have with some of these fires. BTW as an aside the Doce fire burnt around 6500 acres and has essentially been put out. The media in this is solely reporting the cost. I suppose the people who didn't lose houses are happy for the firefighters, but the tight wad rich people sure are complaining loudly and vocally. ....end rant...