Schultz Fire burn area

On August 30, 2010, our field ecology class went out to the burn area from the recent Schultz Fire on the east flank of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff. The spot where we are going to conduct some studies for the class is between Little Elden Spring and Schultz Tank. Currently most of the roads are closed to the public, but our professor got a permit from the Forest Service allowing us access. As with most large fires, the burn was a mosaic in that the fire intensity varied across the landscape. Therefore, some spots were untouched or lightly burned, while other locations had scorched earth and blackened snags. In these higher intensity burn spots, old snags or stumps had been burned all the way down into the roots. The monsoon rains following the fire caused severe erosion in spots, including wiping out sections of road (see the photo of the unearthed culvert below which the road use to cross). The community below the fire has experienced this aftermath with flooding causing damage to homes. Here are some photos from the burn area: