I've spent the past couple of weeks blogging about the fires:
http://www.funbirdingtours.com/blog/
The Monument Fire in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista has been devastating. Mary Jo at Ash Canyon B&B was extremely lucky. A 'firestorm' came through Ash Canyon and burnt around 40 homes. Ash Canyon B&B was one of two homes that survived relatively unscathed. Several local birders and wildlife experts lost their homes which is absolutely tragic. My heart goes out to them.
This fire remains very dangerous and volatile, although the latest news suggests that both Beatty's in Miller Canyon and the Nature Conservancy Preserve at Ramsey Canyon are well prepared and confident of survival. We can but hope.
Elsewhere, the Horseshoe II Fire in the Chiricahuas has pretty much burnt the entire mountain range. Amazingly they have managed to protect the small towns of Portal and Paradise and the famous south fork of Cave Creek, but many of the other birding sites in the Chiricahuas have been lost. Rustler Park, Barfoot Lookout and the Onion Saddle (the main USA range of Mexican Chickadee) are completely gone. This fire has been burning for more than 40 days and has become one of the largest in Arizona history, burning more than 200,000 acres. Nine homes have been damaged or destroyed.
Further north, in east central Arizona, the Wallow Fire has become *the* largest fire in Arizona history. It continues to rage through the White Mountains. It's now burnt more than half a million acres! So far 32 houses have been lost and four commercial properties. There have been ten injuries but thankfully no fatalities.
Other fires recently include the Murphy Complex Fire which came within a whisker of burning Sycamore Canyon, and did burn the Pena Blanca Lake area. This fire is now out. There have been multiple smaller fires which have also now been extinguished.
The implications for birding here are serious, short term and long term. Although we have to put it into perspective: losing your home is serious, not being able to see a few birds is not so serious really. However, if it ruins your vacation, it's still pretty bad. Long term, we have suffered an enormous amount of habitat loss. Short term, we have to deal with a lot of closures and restrictions.
The entire 1.8 million acres of Coronado National Forest are closed to ALL use. Massive fines and possible prison terms await anyone who tries to break the closures. This includes all of the potential birding sites in the mountains of SE Arizona, such as Madera Canyon, Mt Lemmon, all sites in the Huachuca Mountains (Miller, Carr, Ramsey and Ash Canyons, Fort Huachuca including Sawmill, Scheelite, Garden and Huachuca Canyon), the Chiricahua Mountains, Sycamore Canyon, California Gulch, Pena Blanca Lake, etc etc.
Effectively, the only available birding here at the moment is in the lowlands. Places like Patagonia, the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Rivers and Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson are still open.
But anyone hoping to see mountain species such as Elegant Trogon this summer are out of luck - it isn't going to happen.
The closures will continue until 'significant moisture is received' from the monsoon rains, which *should* be here in the next few weeks. My impression is that the closures will remain in place until mid August, maybe later.
As you can imagine, this is causing havoc to many businesses, mine included, but the main thing right now is to keep people safe and protect properties from burning down. We'll worry about little things like making a living later...
Again, more details on my blog at
http://www.funbirdingtours.com/blog/ or on the InciWeb website:
www.inciweb.org
If you'd like the latest news, email me via my website and I'll try to keep you informed.
And please, everyone, do a little rain dance for us!
:-C