Fire: history repeating itself with a vengeance

Back on June 3, 2011, while I was heading towards Heber, I could see the smoke column from the then-100,000 acre "Wallow Fire" burning in the White Mountains from as far away as the Leupp exit on I-40 west of Winslow. The huge mushroom cloud definitely reminded me of the 2002 "Rodeo-Chediski Fire" which burned the Mogollon Rim and came less than two miles from where my family lives in Heber. I remember back then seeing the mushroom cloud just from the Rodeo part of the fire from the Extension Rd. overpass at the US60 freeway in Mesa. A couple of days later my parents were evacuated from Heber as they were gathering important belongings when the Chediski fire started and then merged with the Rodeo fire afterwards, ending at 468,000+ acres by the time it was finished. The current Wallow fire also began as two separate fires that merged and has since surpassed the acreage of the Rodeo-Chediski, to become the largest fire in recorded history in Arizona. At present it has scorched 527,000 acres and is still growing (but at least containment is up to 56% now). It has affected the communities of Alpine, Nutrioso, Springerville-Eagar, and Greer, and is moving towards Luna, New Mexico, and deeper into the Blue Range Primitive Area. It has destroyed many homes and other structures so far. What has been most devastating to me from this fire is the fact that it incinerated good portions of Escudilla Mountain, a scenic butte that hovers above the surrounding landscape and used to be covered in aspens, spruce-fir forests, and lush meadows covered with wildflowers. In the fall you could see the mountainside glowing from the golden leaves of the aspens blanketing the slopes. All I've got now are memories and photos of what Escudilla once was.

Here are some photos of the smoke plume of the Wallow Fire as seen from Holbrook, SR377 near Dry Lake, and above Cottonwood Wash on the road to Clay Springs:

 

Besides the White Mountains burning, the Chiricahua and Huachuca Mountains in southeastern Arizona have also been equally destructive. The "Horseshoe Two" fire in the Chiricahua's has burned 223,000 acres (the 4th largest in state history) and has burned over much of the 40X20 mile long mountain range. Luckily, they were able to protect most of Cave Creek Canyon, which is regarded as one of the most biologically diverse places in the United States (and one of my favorite places). The "Monument Fire" in the Huachuca's has hit several canyons and destroyed over 40 homes so far and is heading into the large town of Sierra Vista.

Despite the tragedy of these fires (all human-caused no less), the nature of such an event is never uniform as it moves across the landscape. There are small gems of forest that survive amongst the charred moonscapes. In the area burned by the Rodeo-Chediski, there were portions of riparian and mixed conifer vegetation that survived. These include the lush pools along Black Canyon Creek at the bridge on FR86 south of Heber and a few snowmelt drainages between Baca Meadow and Black Canyon Lake that have groves of white fir, Douglas-fir, large ponderosa pines, and Gambel oaks. In these groves there are still breeding populations of red squirrels, Flammulated and Spotted Owls, and Red-faced Warblers, albeit much more restricted in where they can breed along the Rim. On June 4th, while my parents went down to the valley to pick up our relatives visiting from Texas at the airport, I took Eva with me and drove down into Black Canyon to walk around at these favorite spots. While we had enjoyed visiting them before, they have taken on more meaning after the fire. After 2002 and all of the fires destroying some of my most-cherished places this summer so far, it has definitely made me realize that you have to visit these spots as often as possible, because they will not always remain in the same state of being for the rest of your lifetime. Humans drastically alter landscapes and ecosystems, natural disasters occur. The only constant is change.

"They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.

But it only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress."

Here are some photos of these spots:

While Eva and I hiked around near the bridge, I heard the male Greater Pewee calling from its territory across the road from the riparian zone. This species has only been found in Black Canyon since 2005, but only in small numbers. Breeding has not yet been documented, only suspected. This species has a interesting song, which has been described as a whistled "Jose Maria" (although I think it sounds more like a construction worker whistling at some attractive woman walking by). Although we spent some time watching the bird at its territory, we never witnessed a second bird. However, it was cool hearing an Olive-sided Flycatcher and Western Wood-Pewees also singing on territory nearby in this small side drainage (all three Contopus species that occur in the western U.S.). Here are a couple of mediocre shots of the Greater Pewee (notice the peaked crest feathers and all-orange lower mandible of its bill):

Eva enjoying the shade after playing frisbee:

An old nest that had fallen into the field near the bridge (with my pen for size scale). Perhaps some kind of flycatcher nest?:

An active nest in an aspen (the grassy cup nest on the thickest branch just to the left of the trunk). It looked like some sort of flycatcher, but only had brief views before it took off:

An ungulate skull that campers had hung on a tree branch. I'm leaning towards this being the skull of one of the feral horses, but it could be an elk (I should know this since it's only been just over a month since I was in a mammalogy class, but I did find some of the ungulate skulls to look very similar to my eye).

Spotted coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata, Family Orchidaceae). This plant lacks chlorophyll for photosynthesis, so feeds off of fungi mycelia in the soil:

 

Groundsel species (Senecio / Packera sp.??, Family Asteraceae). Interesting color morph with the whitish sepals on one individual growing near a typical plant with yellow sepals: