White River fire

[bushwhacker]

I looks like the White River fire pretty much torched the entire Lower White River Wilderness area.

Now you see it:

And now you don't:

For those that didn't get an opportunity to visit that area it was split in two between the Forest Service (top half) and BLM land (lower half). I visited the BLM part a couple of years ago. I takes some navigation to get there both vehicle navigation and hiking navigation.

There was a bit of everything there being on the edge of the West side and the East side. Lots of native grassland without the invasive cheat grass.

Doug fir, Ponderosa pine, Juniper, and lots of scrub oak.

I walked just about the entire perimeter and then some. And even tried to figure out way down to the White River. Super steep and brushy so that was a no go.

Sorry to see it go up in flames.

[adamschneider]

I saw some helicopter video where it was obvious that the grass was burning without involving the crowns of the trees. Let's hope most of the fire had that kind of character; if so, it's not a tragedy at all.

[Charley]

Fingers crossed!
It's been on my radar for years, and I haven't made it over there, yet!

[adamschneider]

Here's a screen shot from the video I saw, showing a more-or-less "natural" wildfire that leaves the tops of the trees intact while scorching the bark and clearing out the underbrush:

I'm sure it'll be a typical "mosaic burn" where various areas burn at different intensities... we'll have to wait for the post-fire assessment to find out.