The last 2 weeks have been horrible for Wyoming. Five major fires have started and moved very fast covering large amounts of area. The Fontenelle fire is about 56,000 acres. The Arapahoe fire is almost 90,000 acres. Oil creek in my neck of the woods hit 58,500 last night. Squirell is around 20.000 I believe, and another started in the bridger-teton and is growing rapidly. We cant get enough fire fighters in the area since it seems the entire west is burning up. Just want to thank all the firefighters out there saving our homes and mountains!! Without you we wouldnt have anything left!!
Wyoming is burning up!!
- Thread starter birdhunter
- Start date
Well, we are getting rain by the arapahoe fire now so hopefully it rains enough to have an impact, it's threatening one of the oldest ranches in the area and a big chunk I national forest and walk in areas
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ffd061
Member
jenbickel
Veteran member
We are burning up and it is so sad! The ash creek fire in Montana is by my parents ranch and is just outrageous! The oil creek fire is by my other house. I feel like everything is burning around me! Hopefully all the storms tonight just produce a lot of rain and help put the fires out! There's is supposed to be a lot of lightning also which could be very bad. I have a feeling it's going to be a very long miserable rest of the summer!
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BobT
Active Member
Hopefully mother nature will intervene with some serious rain and put them out. We have had some small fires around here but nothing too big yet.
Colorado Cowboy
Super Moderator
Just remember there is a beneficial side to all of the fires. If we wearn't here they would burn until they were done...on their own. The land (forest, sage, etc) would regenerate on its own and be more healthy for it. The big fire near Colorado Springs was a disaster, but that area had not burned in a 100 years. Too much undergrowth and fuel for the fire made it much worse that it should (or would) have been. Some of the best hunting I have had is in burned areas that were regenerating...lots of food for all the animals...especially big game animals!
barmar65
New Member
Colorado Cowboy
Super Moderator
Not sure, but I think a lot depends on time of year of the burn and moisture afterwards. I 've hunted burns a couple of years later and there were still plenty of animals. They like the new growth and seem to concentrate in the remaining cover.
brooks
Member
Just ain't right without that beautiful blue sky and cotton candy clouds. Need a little help from above !!
justinthedoc
Member
- Jul 15, 2011
- 75
- 0
Some of you wont appreciate this but, burns are a good thing as long as no one gets hurt. If there is a good winter, and spring think of all the new vegetation man. gonna be great those trees need to burn its a cycle. Look at the predicament tht casper mnt is in all that thick timber on the north side shouldnt be like that. Thats why there is no animals (not many) on that side theres just not much habitat. You look at picture from the early 1900s the mntn hardly has any trees on it, and when she does go up holy crap is it goona go. Just my .02
jenbickel
Veteran member
It is true that the vegetation comes back better than ever but that's what prescribed burns are best for, not the outrageously huge wildfires we have been having. Yes, in my experiences animals do like burn areas to eat and such after it starts growing back but it's usually smaller burn areas where they still have thicker timber around then where they still have a sense of safety. These huge fires where they are taking out whole mountain peaks and such is horrible. You're more than likely not going to find a herd of elk hanging out there come this fall! It's hard to see the up side of these fires when I have experienced first hand how damaging and deadly they are.
Be thankful you dont live in communist Kalifornia, where fire supression has killed the forest. We have very few decent summer, winter ranges that can actually hold animals. Most of our forest is so choked with old underbrush and thick canopies, that when a fire does eventually start, it can/and will grow to epic proportions. Those fires, with all of the fuel, kill everything from the humans that fight them, to the dirt that they grow in. As long as no homes are burned and nobody gets hurt, it will be a boon to hunt in future years. Ive watched our deer populations buckle in the last 50 years, because of fire supression.
bigshot
Very Active Member
I have seen deer move back in right after a fire while the trees were still smoldering! After our California fires, the area looked like a "Moonscape." But the deer were everywhere, wish Forestry would do a control burn in our mtns, the brush is getting thick and tall.
justinthedoc
Member
- Jul 15, 2011
- 75
- 0
The Forest circus should get most of the blame for these big fires for not allowying more logging. This is what you get with rampant bettle kill and no thinning of the trees. Somethings gotta give, also you cant expect to live in area like the laramie peak and the Colorado springs fire and not expect something like that to happen. Its why you thin your trees, just like people in florida area should expect hurricanes, and california expect earthquakes. The animals will come back, and by the sounds of it they may not get that bad boy out before the snow falls so it is what it is. To be honest the fire thing is a little over hyped to me, its summer, its dry, lets move on.
Im 100% for the logging part. We can create 250,000 jobs quick if we can open up the WHOLE forest to logging.
Personally I would rather see a huge forest fire over housing developments along the mountain side. The human invasion into forests is more hurtful for the herds than a forest fire is. Sorry for the people who happen to live in these areas but forest fires come with the territory.
justinthedoc
Member
- Jul 15, 2011
- 75
- 0
Ditto
I wish we could adopt a policy that if you werent born in wyoming you should leave and never come back. (maybe a little extreme) Bwahahaha