This is topic New fire.. in forum Member forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
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Posted by earthwalker (Member # 4177) on August 24, 2018, 04:55 AM:
Called the South Sugarloaf. 92,000 acres.
Just took out what the Martin fire didn't Has burned to the Patan Ranch on the east side of the South FK of the Owyhee, ran up into Duck Valley res and over the mountain to the Elko highway and threaten Mountain City Ranger Station. Has ran into Bullrun Basin. Last of the good sagebrush is gone. Off the Bull Run mountains.
The Rabbit Foot hasn't grown in the last couple of days. But we have a cold front moving through this morning with good winds. So far mine are fairly low 13 mph so far. It's all moving eastward. Cooler temps next few days but no moisture at all in the low lands.
Posted by earthwalker (Member # 4177) on August 24, 2018, 04:58 PM:
South Sugar loaf fire 120k and growing it has reached Mounthain City and the south end of the fire is heading for Wild Horse reservoir.
The Elko highway as we know it is closed from Mountain home to Elko
Posted by Dave Allen (Member # 3102) on August 24, 2018, 05:53 PM:
Interesting haven't looked @ the map yet. Are we saying one fire took off from where the other ended ?
Meanwhile things cleared out quite a bit today. I could even see your mountain, sort of ?
Nobody here "prolly" has no idea what were talking about ?
Their ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
prolly thinking where the hell is Mountain City ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
The whole fire situation seems pretty lose.. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on August 25, 2018, 03:35 AM:
Tragedy. Between the fires south of there last year and now these two, the last ocean of native sage, gone.
That's a gut punch.
Not even to mention, sage grouse in Nevada are fucked. And probably a whole lot of other interests going to get fucked right along with them.
Just a tragedy.
- DAA
Posted by Paul Melching (Member # 885) on August 25, 2018, 03:39 AM:
So sad , are these lightning caused fires? I hate to see vast tracts of natures finest destroyed !
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 25, 2018, 07:28 AM:
How can we be talking about the last of the sagebrush? Seriously? I must have missed it? It's all burned, never rejuvenating? All of it, everywhere?
One thing I always noticed, camped out in the middle of the trackless Nevada desert, even in winter and covered in snow; sagebrush makes an excellent camp/cooking fire. Easy to start, burns hot and seems to last? But I understand a branch the size of a stick of celery might be a hundred years old.
The thing we have to stamp out is fucking tumbleweed!
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on August 25, 2018, 08:36 AM:
Last ocean of contiguous native sage habitat.
I have not been everywhere or seen everything in the range and basin country. But I have been to and seen more of it than at least, what, 95% of anyone alive today. More than anyone I've ever met or talked to.
Never seen anything like it anywhere else. Nothing. Ocean of sage without any structures to speak of. Very well watered, historically, though in drought now... But very well watered, lots of year round flowing water. In places the not so savvy sage country wanderer might not expect to find it. Vast chunks of completely roadless. Just miles and miles of the stuff that NOBODY EVER messed with. Not even the cow outfits. Vast chunks. Of primo habitat, best of it's kind I've ever seen anywhere. Seemed to go without end. The roads to really get out in it, lonely sonsabitches, long ways from fuel. Long ways from a cell signal. Can drive for three days and cover 200 miles and not see another soul.
Between last years fires and this, over 1.5 million nearly contiguous acres of it, gone. That's pretty much ALL of it.
And it ain't coming back. Ever.
Sage seed is not very heat resistant. Cheat grass, Russian thistle, very heat resistant. Seen the pattern slowly take over pretty much all of western Utah within my life. Sage burns, invasive species first to come back, gawd damn mustangs that have been allowed to reach plague level population eroding the fuck out of everything and keeping any sage that tries to grow at about knee cap height and black bare stemmed for the most part.
Actually, lots and lots of it has just transformed without even fire. The horses and the invasive species just get it done.
The loss of virtually all native prairie habitat gets a lot of attention. It's truly just about ALL gone.
When I say native sage habitat, I'm not talking just any old thousand square miles of sage brush. I'm talking stuff that hasn't suffered the invasives, hasn't suffered the horses, hasn't suffered cattle or sheep on any scale to have a wide impact, has never been developed or settled to any extent. That's also well watered, not the baked stunted stuff of the lower elevations. The thick, tall, fully foliaged stuff.
The loss of native sage habitat, honestly, I've never seen it mentioned anywhere. Never read anything about it although I'm sure lots exists? I've simply witnessed it happen in my lifetime.
There are still lots of pockets and patches and even a few decent sized chunks left all over the place. It's not endangered.
But a vast, contiguous, unpopulated, un developed, not over run with mustangs, almost no cattle, just plain un fucked with primo habitat like that... All it takes is a state highway map to see it can't exist almost anywhere else.
I hope it still exists somewhere else. I'll keep looking.
- DAA
Posted by NVWalt (Member # 375) on August 25, 2018, 10:01 AM:
So sad. Now all you will have is endless square miles of cheatgrass. Not anygood for nothing.Critters don't eat it and the sage grouse are doomed that at one time thrived there. I loved that country and have spent years out in it with my wife. I don't even like thinking about it, it is so sad. Best coyote hunting country in the nation and it's all gone. Nothing but memories. Glad I got to spend so many years enjoying it as it will never ever be like that again. Gone forever.Bummer to the max. That country was the best get away from civilization God ever created, just to be destroyed.
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on August 25, 2018, 11:39 AM:
Oh and the big fire, idiot with fireworks.
- DAA
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 25, 2018, 12:12 PM:
Well, it is amazing what sage can do, well watered. When it gets over your head, I notice that mule deer move in and out of it daily or maybe they don't come out, if they hear shooting.
Ever wonder what it actually looks like on the Nellis Range, or China Lake?
So, my question, when talking about destroyed sage habitat, that area up northwest of Elko, used to be full of sage hens, unsurprisingly. This is gone? Changed? The change I notice mostly, is a lot of mule deer where there used to be not that many. Also, pretty good populations of elk and pronghorn in Nye County where there never used to be any, in my experience.
At one time, the only pronghorn you ever hoped to see in Nevada were restricted to the extreme northwest corner. Same thing on the California side,
But, I know about the fires. In the Nevada high desert, it don't come back. I've seen that, years ago and it doesn't seem to regenerate. I never heard this about the sage seeds, so that's an explanation. Whatever, but there are places up there that the coyote hunting ain't what it once was, too. At one time, didn't matter, they were everywhere. Now it can be spotty. And, I agree with Dave. The fucking mustangs are worthless, time to quit the sympathy and thin them out. They bully native game at the water.
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by earthwalker (Member # 4177) on August 25, 2018, 06:24 PM:
Add another fire to the list tonight.
Started this afternoon at the summer homes at Grandjean out by the Sawtooths.
last I heard it was running hard I think to the east towards the Sawtooths. Not sure what started it had to be human. Don't know if any houses were burnt and they were worried about cars parked at the tailhead into the Sawtooths.
Smoking in Challis and Stanley.
Posted by Paul Melching (Member # 885) on August 26, 2018, 04:44 AM:
Shaking my head just sad ! Fireworks hang the asshole !
Posted by earthwalker (Member # 4177) on August 26, 2018, 05:19 AM:
Wapiti fire at Grandjean just jumped the South FK of the Boise river this morning. 2,000 acres and running is what the sit report said. But it has to be a lot bigger if it burned hard all night.
We finally cleared out of smoke! Doing the happy dance.
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