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Post by Chris Grinter on Jun 20, 2011 15:55:24 GMT -8
Some of you may have already heard the sad news - but last week the home and collection of Noel McFarland was burned to the ground in the Monument fire near Sierra Vista, Arizona. Noel and his family escaped without harm, but the loss of the collection is devastating.
For people who don't know Noel; he has contributed a massive amount of research on moths to our field - and his collection was one of the most important privately held ones in the US.
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Post by anthony on Jun 20, 2011 19:27:42 GMT -8
That is sad news indeed. I hope with time he has the desire to rebuild his collection.
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Post by Chris Grinter on Jun 21, 2011 15:14:26 GMT -8
Well sadly the collection was very large, possibly in the hundreds of thousands of specimens, and represented his life's work. No way to really rebuild that...
Makes me want to donate my specimens about as fast as I collect them!
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evra
Full Member
Posts: 230
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Post by evra on Jun 21, 2011 15:54:35 GMT -8
And it's only part of the tragedy in SE Arizona right now. Even if Noel had another lifetime in which to collect, many of the good spots to collect in southern Arizona are being burned at an incredibly fast pace. In the last month the whole Pena Blanca area has burned, pretty much all of the Chiricahuas, and the southern half of the Huachucas, which is really the only area you can collect in the Huachucas.
I'm hoping that the damage, especially in the Chiricahuas isn't all that bad. If the large Ponderosa pines completely burned though, that area won't recover for hundreds of years.
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Post by Chris Grinter on Jun 21, 2011 20:39:58 GMT -8
Well undoubtedly collecting will be changed in SE Arizona for years to come, but nature will bounce back eventually. Plus, it looks like California Gulch remains unburned and Sycamore Canyon may have escaped damage (it looks like the fire went up to one side of the road but not down the canyon at all). Good thing AZ is a big state with lots of other places to go collect as long as they don't burn too...
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Post by Chris Grinter on Jun 21, 2011 23:22:40 GMT -8
I created a map of the Murphy and Bull fires with points of interest pinned. Pena Blanca is the 084/100 pin on the bottom right, and that represents the wash you drive down, past the campground on Ruby Rd. There is still some habitat left un-burnt - but that is not accessible by vehicle (unless you drive down the riverbed with 4wd). The fire burned right up to Sycamore Canyon, but not down it - that might be fine. And California Gulch avoided the fire by a good margin. Too bad it's dangerous as hell down there!
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evra
Full Member
Posts: 230
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Post by evra on Jun 22, 2011 3:00:16 GMT -8
There was a third fire Chris, called Pena earlier in the year. I'm pretty sure the reason Bull and Murphy didn't burn that little area on your map is because it was already burned in the earlier fire.
The thing that worries me is that the land isn't going to recover. Every single one of these fires was human caused, and were almost certainly caused by either a drug runner or illegal immigrant, either intentionally or unintentionally. Part of the problem is that they keep starting fires at unnatural times of the year, which allows them to burn for months on end. A natural lightning caused fire would only occur during, or just before the summer rains, which would then naturally suppress it. There's normally no rain in May or June, so a fire that starts in early May could easily burn until mid-July.
Furthermore, they keep burning the same spots repeatedly. For example, this is the second fire to go through Copper Canyon in a few years. There was another fire last year in the Chiricahuas that was started in the exact same spot. There was another fire in the Pena Blanca area called Alamo in 2008. There was another one before Alamo slightly to the east in 2002 or 2003 as well. With naturally low precipitation, it takes at least 10-15 years for an area to recover, and it can't do that if it's getting burned every 3-5 years.
I don't think California Gulch is any more dangerous than Pena Blanca as far as illegal activity. My biggest fear down there is getting caught in a flash flood. Because of the really stupid design of the road going in, I can see going in, getting caught in a storm, and then not being able to get back out.
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Post by Chris Grinter on Jun 22, 2011 14:56:57 GMT -8
Ahh thank's for pointing that out, the way they have the map shaded it looked like the Pena fire was last year, not in March! Here is another updated map. Sycamore and Cal Gulch still haven't burned in the last few years. Older fires don't have good perimeter data and don't show on this map for some reason... I don't think we need to worry about the land never recovering. You're right that these fires aren't happening at the right time of year, but the rains will still come and the areas will still be recolonized. It may take a decade or more, but there has never been an instance where nature doesn't come back from a loss like this. There may be a shift in the components of the habitat - some of those grasslands near Arivaca never had trees until fire suppression allowed them to take hold. Even if collecting sucks at Pena this year, there are 200 other canyons that haven't burned, they just aren't "famous collecting spots". It all just means we have to scatter and find better locations. I collected in the Baboquivari's in July 2009 right after the range burnt that spring (around April/May). Things were green, lots of ash and charcoal, but still lots of moths! Things were different than the year before, but not shockingly so. (Melipotis jucunda was more abundant than usual) Not all is lost, nature bounces back quickly and it will be interesting to see what moths show up when. Who knows, there might be some 'rarities' that respond very well to the fires or it might take them years to reappear.
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