I spent some time in your state last spring coming down from Utah through the Kaibab, slowly making our way to Phoenix to fly home.
Gorgeous state...
Arent the fires a natural way to rejuvenate the fauna? I realize the obvious negatives towards the houses etc etc.... its not something we see back east so Im unsure, but did notice lots of areas on our tour that seemed recently burned, in fact I think from Flagstaff to Sedona on 89A was all charred up if I recall properly.
Hope everyone is safe.
Yeah, having lived through a very big AZ fire, I can tell you it may rejuvenate the fauna, and the flora, but the thing is the landscape is no longer "natural". Land use practices, encroachment of residences, and decades of fire suppression and lack of "thinning" had an absolutely horrible outcome in that fire, and that was 20 years ago.
I've seen, lived near, and lived in areas where there have been big fires since the 70's. I'm talking fires over 150K acres. And all the talk from the agencies (state and federal) , the biologists, the foresters, the academics, the "environmentalist groups" , and municipalities in high fire danger zones hasn't accomplished much. No one wants to pony up the bucks to address the issue, and they all seem to blame each other for the problem.
Saw the same thing regarding salmon issues in the PNW.
And you're right,one doesn't see these kind of fires back east very often. Not sure where you're at, but I lived near the Allegheny National Forest. About 500K acres. It's a big chunk of woods, and it would be hard to imagine 1/2 of that going up in flames in one event. Then again, that area rarely goes more than a couple of weeks without rain, unlike places out west that can go months without a drop.
One day, perhaps ,folks will actually stop fighting over it and address the issue. I have a sneaky suspicion I'll be long gone when that happens.
