Life on an Arabian breeding farm in Capitan, NM.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Arizona burns...


The news is all about the fires in AZ. Besides the fact that I grew up in Tucson, Rudy and I spent our honeymoon in Greer, which is a small town near Showlow in the White Mountains. It is absolutely beautiful up there, or was. Our neighbors growing up used to go to the White Mountains hunting every year. Yesterday the sunset was a little hazy, but tonight you could definitely tell that the ash was contributing to the sunset. I’m going to try to stay up to catch a photo of the moon, which is red due to the ash in the atmosphere. My cameras are not sophisticated enough for night shots, unless the moon is just rising or setting.  I doubt that I can, it’s setting much too late for even me. For the first time you can smell the fire. Albuquerque, and most of central NM, has been dealing with the smoke and ash for days.

Last year the fires were bad, but I have an idea this will end up being the largest fire AZ has ever had to deal with. It’s already at over 600 sq miles and is 0% contained. There is nothing but sun, and wind in the forecast. Growing up in the southwest, fire is always a major concern, next to water, rattlers, and scorpions. I can remember one year watching the Catalina’s burning. Tucson is basically a very large box valley. To the north are the Catalina’s, south are the Santa Rita’s, east the Rincon’s, and west are the Tucson Mountains. You can never get lost during the day, as the mountains are always there telling you which direction you are going. We could sit on the roof, and see the flames everywhere along the mountain ridge. Sandy our friend in Fresno, remembers that fire well as she was on one of the crews that came in from CA to help fight the fire. A few years ago the Catalina’s burned again, and this time the village at Mt. Lemon was destroyed.

People are so careless. They don’t understand that it takes so little to destroy the forest. They flick out their cigarettes, or leave their campfires burning. They stop their cars, which are hot where there are dry grasses. On a windy day a stray spark can ignite dry grasses which burn hot, and fast. The southwest is not abundant in water like other parts of the country. We get winter rains, and summer monsoon rains. Our annual rainfall is only about 12”. In a dry winter, the forests become tinderboxes waiting for someone to be careless. The terrain is rough to say the least, and you can’t just plough a fire line. Most of the land is inaccessible except for Big Horn Sheep, Mountain Lions, Bears, and other such creatures. Yes fires are necessary to clear out underbrush, dead trees, and bring new life to the forests, which is why the forest service does control burns, but fires like these destroy habitat for the forest creatures who have no way to survive except to run, and pray they don’t burn to death.

I’m sorry for carrying on like this, but this is something close to my heart. If people could see the needless devastation of these great fires perhaps they might learn to be more aware of the consequences of their carelessness. The forests are as important to our survival as they are to the many creatures that live there, including some humans. If a fire erupted here on our mountain, I would be hard pressed to save all our animals, never mind the memories of a lifetime that are contained within the walls of our home. Tornados, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are neither preventable, now predictable. Forest fires for the most part (at least 90% of them) are totally preventable if only people would treat the forestland as some one’s home. You wouldn’t go to someone’s house and start a fire, why is the forest any different. It is home to thousands, perhaps millions of creatures large, and small. Why are they any less important?

I could go on, and on, but I won’t. I will simply say a prayer that the brave men, and women fighting this blaze will be kept safe from harm, and that somehow they will contain this terrible fire, and keep it from destroying any more towns, homes, and precious habitat.

1 comment:

  1. We have to worry about forest fires here in MI too. In the Spring particularly when the snow has melted and there is little humidity and the forest hasn't greened up yet. Up by our cabin there was a fire last Fall (after a dry spell). It was about a half a mile away from our place. Thank goodness they were able to contain it. With all of those pine trees, it is always a worry, (even though they do manage the forests up there). They think that one was caused by carelessness too.

    It is horrible what is happening in AZ.

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