Philmont Ordered to Evacuate Due To Approaching Fire

Wow. While were thinning forest for our service project during our Philmont trek last summer, I was thinking, “At some point in the future, I’ll be reading about a wildfire near Philmont and checking a map to see if our service project helps to contain it.” I didn’t expect that to be less than 12 months later.

I know Philmont has been doing a lot of work to prepare their land for another wildfire. Hopefully it pays off.

Current National Geographic is about Trees. All over the world.  And a lot about natures use of fire to burn off the duff.  Man’s use of fire in the past to control areas.  And how those fires do less damage to a mature tree than the outofcontrol ones.  There is a photo of a cross section of a ponderosa pine that they think started growing in 1650.  It had survived 15 fires.  By the 20th century, fires were suppressed.  Fuel built up and a 2011 monster fire killed it.

One study from the last few years showed that preventative measures didn’t help much.

Because of how dry it is, and the higher than average temperatures, once the fire starts it escalates rapidly to the point of engulfing everything.

This was the evaluation from recent fires in forests that have been managed to what was thought to have been an almost best case scenario.

Can’t get a break, fires, virus and fires again.

Zastrow cabin destroyed.

Cooks Peak fire is 97% contained with a northernmost boundary just south of Urraca Mesa.

Cooks Peak fire incident