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Alpinefly
06-06-2011, 06:44 PM
Over 200,000 acres burned & 0 containment so far. My most favorite fishing spot in all of Arizona, The East Fork Black River (above Deer Creek) totally destroyed. So many beautiful small streams, lakes, mountain forests, wildlife all destroyed. The Native Apache restoration down the drain. A wide variety of trout, and as to fly fishing, one of the best kept secrets when it came to Arizona. My thoughts and prayers are with all the residents in the white Mountains and the Apache Sitgreaves Forests. My wife, family, and I spent a lot of great times (especially in the Bear Wallow Wilderness). Fly fishing the smallstreams (especially the East Fork Black, Blue River, Nutrioso Creek, Hannagans Meadows, West Fork, Little Colorado; in the shadow of the sacred mountain (Mount Baldy) you would have to experience to understand. I wish my tears could put out the fire. I hope God's tears come soon !!!

adam
06-06-2011, 10:28 PM
This is the area that smallstreams (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/06/06/20110606arizona-wildfire-update-wallow-fire-nears-200000-acres-abrk.html).com was born of...

Speechless.

itchmesir
06-07-2011, 09:39 AM
sorry to hear about that...

Alpinefly
06-07-2011, 02:15 PM
They will be closeing Mount Lemmon (my fast fix to Fly Fishing is 20 miles away in Rose Canyon), along with the rest of the National Forests here in Arizona indefinitely. It is a bitter pill to swallow. Since the Wallow fire was human caused, it is still under investigation. The fire is not slowing down (has approached 200,500 acres). As of yesterday evening, evacuation orders were given to Greer, and Sunrise. Diamond X Ranch is now in direct line to the fire. The high winds, hot weather, and dry lightening is adding to the problem of trying to fight this fire (still 0 contained). I hope to get up to Rose Canyon tomorrow for one last fly fishing trip before it closes Thursday. I am sitting at my vise right now tying flies, drinking beer, and very depressed. This Summer is pretty much screwed. As Adam said, this is where smallstreams was born. You have to experience fly fishing in the shadow of the sacred mountain (Mount Baldy) to understand what I, Adam, and the rest of us who fly fish and live in Arizona are feeling right now.

adam
06-07-2011, 02:16 PM
Fire is such a devistating occurance, horrible but it is natural.

I'm just stunned, the first time up there will be tough, to check the damage, check where we will be able to burn memories or if they were burned for us.

gusstrand
06-07-2011, 04:34 PM
Reminds me of the Biscuit Fire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit_Fire) when we lived in Oregon. That one trapped us while camping on the coast. Had to drive a six hour detour to get home.

You guys might be interested in bookmarking the incident page if you haven't already. It's more info than most news sites/channels have: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2262/

117

Alpinefly
06-08-2011, 01:30 PM
Greer is now officially burning. Wink (X Diamond Ranch) refuses to leave (last I heard). Eager has already been evacuated. Springerville is on standy-by. The fire is now 3 miles south of Springerville/Eager. Close to 400,000 acres burned and 0 contained at this point. It will continue to be hot and windy today (not good news for the fire fighters). I will be heading up this afternoon and evening to fish Rose Canyon (Mount Lemmon) since all National Forests as of noon tomorrow will be closed indefinitely.
Thank you Gus for posting the Wallow fire info link. This map is constantly updated.

Alpinefly
06-10-2011, 11:46 AM
Now the largest fire in Arizona history, the Wallow Fire is not slowing down in its' destruction. This is a tremendous loss to all of us who have cherished the high mountain lakes and small streams in the Arizona White Mountains, along with the abundant wildlife and beautiful forests. I enjoyed my afternoon and evening of fly fishing in Rose Canyon (Mount Lemmon). It is bone dry up on the mountain, and I support the closeing of all of the National Forests lands here in Arizona. I pray the monsoons will come soon with plenty of rain (not soon enough for what has already been lost).

Alpinefly
06-15-2011, 05:11 PM
At this point, the Wallow Fire has burned over 400,600 acres. It is hot and windy today which does not help the fire fighters. I wish the monsoon rains would come soon.

adam
06-16-2011, 08:36 AM
http://www.azcentral.com/news/wildfires/wallow/wallow-fire-timeline.php

That is the map I have been using to follow the progression.

Sending good vibes to the people fighting it and the people in the area.

...prayers for all.

This is a malor catastrophe.

Alpinefly
06-20-2011, 11:53 AM
Over 500,000 acres burned in the Wallow Fire. We have another fire a little Southwest of Tucson (The Monument Fire), around Sierra Vista, that has burned a lot of homes (and businesses). We could not even see the Rincon Mountains, the Tucson Mountains, and barely Mount Lemmon that are right by us because the smoke was so bad (burned my eyes and had to take a few puffs off both my inhalers). Pray for rain soon. We need it since it is so hot and dry. The wind will not be as bad today, so hopefully the fire fighters can get a handle on this disaster.

adam
06-20-2011, 07:01 PM
Hey, take a look at the Big Lake Facebook page...

There are areas of the fire that just didn't get wiped out.

Fire is bad but fire is natural. It is my area too, just trying to look at the other side. I don't want people to lose their homes, nothing like that. This fire is un-natural as it was a man made fire...

Hang in there man, explore other areas, but keep going and don't stop doing what you love to do.

I'm still sad about all the destruction, very sad...

Alpinefly
06-28-2011, 12:53 PM
Yes, it was nice looking on the Big Lake page that a lot of the spots were not destroyed (like our cherished spot #15 in Cutthroat campground). The Wallow Fire has burned over 500,300 acres at this point and is a bit over 80 % containment.
A big hope that the monsoon rains come (and without dry lightning). Right now, I sit at my vise and continue to tie, with the hope of a fishing trip soon. Apache Trout Restoration Project will be pretty much back at square one. There certainly will be a lot of stream work needed and a lot of volunteers to do this from all the local Trout Unlimited groups. We can not help when fire has natural causes (like dry lightning). We can prevent wildfires caused by careless humans. Stop to think when you flick a ciggarette butt out your car window, or even the safety of your campfire when you are camping. It is our responsibility to take care of the beauty we were given, and allowed to experience.

adam
06-28-2011, 02:02 PM
I flew over the area on Thursday, it was nothing like I had imagined from the air, I'll have to see when I go fishing next month after the Monsoon starts.

I took pictures, you can hardly detect that there was a fire, the forest for the most part is green, it is surreal. I know there is damage but I am unsure most about stream damage. I am getting messages from others about Yosemite and Yellowstone fires, how the forest bounces back and such.

I'm not so sure the Apache Trout restoration is back to square one and I'm not so sure that your forest has been burned flat out. The fire has intensity levels and there are fire intensity maps that detail just how bad it was burned.

I'm looking on the bright side, if there is one here...

My forest is not dead and forgotten, whoa is not me.

I'll be headed back up there and I will explore new areas and I will no longer write about it until I see it with my own eyes.

Amazing how the White Mountain Apache Tribal land has not had such burning, thinning the forest, may not be such a bad thing.

Anyway, enough doomsday for me, New Mexico has some major fires going on there, I passed two big fires on my way home.

New Mexico forests are now taking a hit, we are not alone.

Alpinefly
07-01-2011, 01:11 PM
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ftp/InciWeb...-215436-0.jpeg

This is the link to the current intensity burn map.

Alpinefly
07-08-2011, 12:57 AM
You can get to the intensity map much better from the azflyandtie site (under Wallow Fire). We are having a lot of nice needed soaking rain. Big Lake, & Crescent Lake is opening up the 8th. Mount Lemmon is opened back up (Tucson). With the rains, will come some erosion, and some ash wash into streams & lakes. Like Adam, I am trying to keep with the good side of it all (vibes). Certainly, some places did not get touched, some fared better then others. I amcertainly ready to get back to some fishing !!!

adam
07-08-2011, 08:37 AM
Me too.

I will report what I find soon enough.