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Tag Archives: wildfire

Fire Season in the Methow Valley

Around here, we worry about wild fires. These fears have been confirmed this week. On Monday a small lightning storm went through north central Washington leaving behind small fires in the tinder dry grass and ponderosa pines. One fire quickly flared, south of here in Texas Creek causing mandatory evacuations. It grew quickly and yesterday it crossed the highway and the Methow River at the bottom of Libby Creek. As I understand, it is now burning south towards Gold Creek.

Another fire, directly across the valley from our house, burned slowly. It was named Cougar Flats for the area where it started. Tuesday afternoon the wind picked up and it grew quickly on state and federal land. Yesterday it grew by leaps and bounds and last night it made a run south towards homes and farms. More evacuations this morning.

Here are some photos I made last night from my porch. I think the glowing horizon is the timber in Pipestone Canyon.

Here is another small fire that so far, has not attracted much attention. It is located up valley from the Cougar Flats Fire.

As of this time, we are in no immediate danger. I worry about those that are.

Fire’s Aftermath

Around here the biggest disaster the people worry about is wildfire. Last year we had more than our share of fires in North Central Washington and many folks were trapped in their houses for days in hopes of avoiding the choking smoke. I am reminded of this now with the US Forest Service doing controlled burning in hopes of preventing uncontrolled fires in the future. The smell is strong in the air and I can see the smoke’s haze all over the valley.

One gift of fire is the morel mushroom. The fire morel is a delicacy that is hunted with great zeal in a burned landscape. My uncle came to visit this week in hopes of getting the mushroom season off to a good start. He had studied last year’s fires’ locations and aspects and picked one area to explore. He was right. With the little bit warmer weather we are finally getting, the fungi are just starting to show themselves and we both came home with about a gallon of them. He said the ones we harvested are most likely natural morels and that the fire morels will come on a bit later. On our menu last night was morel risotto! What a treat.

 

 

The landscape looks very bleak.

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I heard and saw Black-backed Woodpeckers who come into a burned forest almost immediately to consume the insects that have arrived to consume the dead trees.

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Many of the morels were growing out from under rocks and burned roots. This is a nice looking one.

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I also heard Canyon Wrens’ beautiful songs from the cliffs above.

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Smoke Gets in My Eyes

Forest fires have been wreaking havoc on everything in north central Washington for the last two weeks. Most were started by a lightning storm that roared through the region the night of September 8. One was human caused. For a few days our area was spared the heavy smoke but that soon changed and this has been a common late afternoon sight, if we get to see the sun at all. Official air monitoring by the state has listed our air as ‘unhealthy’ for the last few days. It could be worse. In Wenatchee and Cashmere, it has been ‘hazardous’. The good news is that the hard-working fire fighters are starting to get a handle on most of the blazes with strong lines built by hand and machine and with the help of many aircraft. Some of the interior parts of the fires will burn til the snow falls. And there is no precipitation in sight.

This image is from last Friday. I was photographing a wedding at Sun Mountain Lodge.

Photos from the wedding will be posted at my other blog before the end of the week.

Six Years Later

In 2006, the Tripod wildfire raged through Okanogan County. Between late July and snowfall, it burned more than 175,000 acres of forest lands. Unlike the fires currently burning in Colorado and Montana, it did not burn any homes. Six years later, regeneration is producing a new kind of forest with wildlife friendly snags, wildflowers and new growth of willows and aspens. I spent part of Monday afternoon walking through a tiny bit of the old burn listening to birds and small mammals and admiring the flowers.

 

Burnt snags reflected in a small pond

 

 

Roger Lake – some trees survived in the boggy edges of this lake and it continues to be a great place for birds and other wildlife

 

 

Snags criss cross on the trail

 

Bog orchid grows in a wet spot

 

lupine

 

Spent flowers remind me of the fire

 

Lupine bud

 

Lupine from above

 

Scarlet gilia

 

Wild rose

 

Penstemon

 

Here is an article about the fire. And here is an article about a study on the effects of the fire.