Dam Fires

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bigbone

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Um, could someone please tell me that the Pahvant is not burning? Where is this fire if anyone knows...


Deseret Morning News - Jul 07 5:01 PM
160,000-acre wildfire forces closure of long stretch of I-15 in central Utah
A 160,000-acre wildfire forced the closure of almost 100 miles of I-15 from Scipio, Millard County, to just south of Beaver shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday and forced the evacuation of dozens of people.

I'm not from Utah and really not up on my central Utah geography, so I really don't know where this one is???



^BIGBONE^
 
It's not on the Pahvant so far. It's burning West of their out in the Milford flats. According to the news it's huge and moving very fast. I've got smoke so thick up here in South Utah County. You can't even see halfway across the valley.


It's always an adventure!!!
 
LAST EDITED ON Jul-07-07 AT 10:20PM (MST)[p]Well that eases my mind a little but not enough..I suppose the September bull hunt is going to be up in the air till this hot dry summer finally ends.

I sure hope it doesn't make it to where we plan to hunt, sounds kinda close...

I guess if it herds the game northeast a little it can't hurt???




^BIGBONE^
 
Just checked KSL.com and the fire is on the Pahvant. It has destroyed some structures on the very southwest corner of the unit and is burning west. Sorry to give that info. Apparently it's really bad and is around 100,000 acres.

It's always an adventure!!!
 
4690fb5f362e24b5.jpg


Before (shot was taken 7/1/07) and after?????
 
Thanks for the info, it's not looking so good now. All we can do now is hope the winds don't push this thing north???

I just read the front page story at deseretnews.com on the fire, sounds like a mess, two people on a motorcycle were killed at the I-15 road closure and nobody even knows who did it?


^BIGBONE^
 
i am in northern ut, and there is a big fire in idaho, can't hardly see 100 yards the smoke is so thick, bookcliffs arnt on fire yet are they?
 
Not looking good! These winds can't be helping anything. Sure hope they get it under control before all is gone. 280,000 acres burned in less than 48 hours OUCH!
 
So is all of this fire west of I-15 or has it spread east over I-15? I know it did jump the interstate but I wondered if they got that part east of I-15 out? How close to Milford is the fire?
 
I know this not only the Pavaunt but the Beaver unit are gettimg smoked right now. We were camping down there this weekend and it is not good.


Rutnbuck
 
We were camping at Fishlake last weekend, and the ash was falling quite heavy for a couple of hours. The smoke was thick and visibility was less than 1/2 anywhere on the mountain.
We need some rain in a BAD BAD way!
Hopefully they are getting a handle on the Milford Flat fire. The last I heard it was headed away from the Pahvant.
Any updates?
a*r
 
I understand it has the potential to make life crappy for you guys who drew a hunt in that country THIS year, But I'm surprised that you UT guys aren't jumping for joy at a chance to get some of your good country burned. If it burned 300K acres in 48 hours, it needed it.

Take it from a guy from the place that gave us all Smokey the Bear, To modify my dads creedo when I was growing up (pain is good, extreme pain is extremely good), Fire is good, extreme fire is extremely good.

Not trying to rub in a wound, just don't forget to be stoked once the smoke clears.

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NM Operation Game Thief 1-800-432-4263
?I want as game protectors men of courage, resolution, and hardihood, who can handle the rifle, ax, and paddle; who can camp out in summer or winter; who can go on snowshoes if necessary; who can go through the woods by day or night without regard to trails" Theodore Roosevelt-1899
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Antler1 Suppresion of wild fires is what is getting us in this mess. Fires burned across this land long before were were here and were much less destructive because there where fires so often.


alpinebowman

>>>---shots that are true pass right through--->
 
Alpline, I didn't pick Smokey's motto, I was just stating a fact. I agree with you but back in the good old days you speak of timber harvest and grazing were used a lot more effectively to reduce fuels then they are now. We also have a couple million more structures scattered around then we used to.
 
My point about Smokey the Bear was that the motto worked too well.

Your right about there being a lot more structures, and of course I wouldn't imply that it's good for someone to loose their home or anything like that. I disagree with you in some ways. I'd like to see the "environmentalists" get out of the way of profesional resource managers and allow more directed timber harvest, but grazing practices over the past 100 years or so have contributed to the fire troubles we have now. As a partial thumbnail; Pinyon/Juniper seedlings outcompete the (cattle-grazed)grass and grow too dense (and spread across the country side), same thing happens in the Ponderosa to a degree. Fire (1/ 30 years ave.) carried through the grass cleans out the understory and revitalizes browse species, without it (grass), fire through the canopy (1/100 years ave) leaves a sterilized moonscape. A great fire does a little bit of each and leaves behind a patchwork of habitats.

Anyway, didn't want to start a fire ecology debate, or try to blame the cattlemen (at all)- my initial point is that that 280,000 acres you guys "lost" is going to support double the game populations over the next 10- 50 years, and that's something to celebrate. That's all. Sorry for sticking my NM nose into your conversation.

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NM Operation Game Thief 1-800-432-4263
?I want as game protectors men of courage, resolution, and hardihood, who can handle the rifle, ax, and paddle; who can camp out in summer or winter; who can go on snowshoes if necessary; who can go through the woods by day or night without regard to trails" Theodore Roosevelt-1899
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Warden,
I was just being sarcastic with the smokey comment, not trying to discredit you. I need to learn how to make them smiley faces at the end.

I agree wildfire has a lot of benefits I never disputed that. I know areas that have done well and some that have not. I just think when you loose over 400 sq miles in one fire that is to much. I maybe wrong this is unprecedented in Utah to have a fire this big. Maybe in New Mexico fires this big are common and you are speaking from experience.

This area is prime mule deer habitat and is both summer and winter range. Our mule deer are struggling right now. In the long term I'm sure you are right. Maybe you can shed some light on the short term with your back ground. I was in Milford last night and my brother in law was saying they will have to hunt a different area this fall which a lot of hunters will do. This will put pressure other areas. Will the area recover enough to sustain the critters through the winter? I'm not trying to start a debate. I'm just a keyboard range manager/biologist like about 5000 other guys on here. You make a living dealing with this stuff and your opinion carries a lot of weight so feel to stick your NM nose in anytime, becides that's better then a DC nose stuck in here. Just being sarcastic again, No offence to you Dc boys.
 
My primary hunting area is burning down there right now. Guess I will have to be hitting up the alternates now. Horrible that it is burning so much area, pushing 500 square miles now. I was already hunting an area that was burned, now it is burned again. I can't say I am suprised though with all of the knee high cheat grass in the area. On the bright side, maybe there can be a push to ramp up the efforts to reseed the area with sage. The state has been focusing heavily on sage restoration. This may be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the newly cleared terrain and get a jump on the cheat grass.
 
Antler, I expanded a lot on my soapbox in another string (fire good 0r bad? or something like that)Check it out, lots of good discussion on there.

Yea I can tell you that a fire that size is indicative of big problem. I'm not out there, I don't know the country so I probably should have stayed out of it. I can say, in my experience with fires, when you hear the big numbers like that (280,000 acres was the last i heard) not nearly all of that is completely toasted. When you get out there in 3-4 months there may be much (maybe most) of it that you wouldn't even know had burned. There also may be much of it that looks like a moonscape. If you'd get some rain this summer, you might see some benefit right away There are spring species and fall species of grass and forbs and it's not impossible to think the deer will back in there sooner than later. You mentioned that some great winter and summer range had been burned. From my armchair quarterback keyboard (800 miles away) I'd guess the country either had a lot of room for improvement, or will bounce back very quickly. I'd guess that the areas you'd concider good winter and summer range will be bigger and better over the next several years. Maybe I'm just trying to put a positive spin on it, I don't know.

I think you're right in assuming that alot of the country May suffer in the context of THIS year's hunt, but I wouldn't conceed that the sky has fallen yet. In some ways, a blackened pin cushion of dead snags with a bunch of weeds growing every where looks better to a mule deer than the pitchuresque forest that was there before. All my best honey holes are recent burns that still look pretty ugly. I don't know, I'm totally specualting, but then again, so is everyone else. I also understand that the fires out in Utah have had severe concequences for some folks, much more significant than the quality of the deer habitat.

One things for sure, pray for rain and have your neighbor do it too.

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NM Operation Game Thief 1-800-432-4263
?I want as game protectors men of courage, resolution, and hardihood, who can handle the rifle, ax, and paddle; who can camp out in summer or winter; who can go on snowshoes if necessary; who can go through the woods by day or night without regard to trails" Theodore Roosevelt-1899
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Warden,
I seen the other post after I replyed to this one and you have alot of valid points. Like you say rain is going to be the key and we were all praying for it long before the fire started.

On a brighter note they raise a couple million pigs a year in Milford and now their smoked before they go to slaughter.
 

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