4 miles south of me right now. 81 degrees and dry as popcorn. Big white spruce

Burned needles falling in my yard now. Can hear them hitting the deck roof.

Of course the FAA chose this very time to resurface the runway so we can't run retardant or jumpers out here at this time.

Might be a hot time in the old town tonight !

I hate summer !

Man....way early for dry heat and fire danger....that's why rain and cool is so good. Folks will be packing emergency things, just in case.

Great timing on the runway resurface. You would think that a high fire danger may have put off the job until more favorable conditions arrived.

Chris

That makes too much sense I think.

4 miles is a-little-to-close-for-comfort in my opinion.
Good luck tonight

That's not good at all Ken ! I hope you folks stay safe and that fire is contained in a short amount of time !

Or get Pete busy on that I'm sure he's ready to get back to work !

That sucks Ken! Lemonade approach might be to start digging and then bill the team for your hours later!

I hate summer too! The fun factor went out of that stuff a long time ago!

Hope you get some support up there. Too close for comfort!

Hang in there Ken, good luck.
It's starting down here too.

Stay safe Ken!

Cooled of to about 48 right now. Wind was kicking up about 20 mph until midnight. Calm now.

Pretty smoky in town but the fire appears to be less active for the moment.

Can't pave a runway in freezing weather, only during warm months.

Grab a Pulaski and quit whining.....!

Pete

Is a Pulaski anything like a brewski ?


True story Charles.

I hope the winds take it away from you Ken. It’s shapin up to be a bad fire year I believe. Prayin for rain and cooler temperatures for ya. And the brewski is for after you get done with the Pulaski!

They dropped 12 guys on it and got one load of retardant on it but it is still uncontained.

The wind came around from SW to W and that has helped clear the smoke.

Tomorrow the wind is supposed to swing NW and then NE. That should help a lot


TATER: I think the last time I had a beer was in 1990. Lips that touch liquor will never touch mine !!


Pic from this morning.

Grab a P---Pack and a bucket and get over there.

looks like some high pressure system you have with that straight up smoke tower
hope the pattern clears up soon.

I thought I smelled smoke.

good luck stay safe

Looking any better this morning white?

Well the sky looks good this morning but the fire has jumped to 1200 acres overnight. They hit it with retardant on the north yesterday. Trying to steer it into a wetland area. Hopefully the wind will cooperate today

White -

Are all those summer recreational homes, condominiums, and boutiques along the boardwalk going to be okay?

Jack

You are killing me here Jack!

Pray for the Greater McGrath Metropolitan Area...!

Pete

It looks like a couple of Fire Bosses would do some good on that left flank and catch it in the light flashy fuels and give you a cold black edge to work with.

And the golf course!

Latest I could find for you:

Just got word from a friend that a new blaze has begun about 1.5 miles east of me.


There is one cabin out that way and a crew has set up sprinklers there and laid hose to a nearby lake. I'm going to guess that this was started by hot debris blowing north out of the main fire.



So far all the huge condos and boutiques are doing well

A golf course? Sounds like a decent jump spot because obviously you can’t drive there.

All my geological training that river has changed directions just a few times over the millennial ages...hope the fire does not have it's ideas.

Hey White, did that fire burn any of your trapping ground?

Also, what are your thoughts on fur bearing animal populations after a fires gone through? Certain animals that become abundant for the first 1-5 years then others after that? That sorta thing.

No it's a long ways from my trapline.

Fire & furbearers. I think it depends on how hot the fire gets. If it's super hot I think it kills just about everything in the soil so that regrowth is very slow.

But a sort of cool slow moving fire usually allows grasses the next spring and knocks over dead trees ..............both of which provide cover and grub for voles & shrews. That will eventually bring in furbearers. Especially on the edges where there is still substantial cover available in the unburned areas.

It is especially good for moose too.

Moose were everywhere after the 1980 fire in NW. Were really good for about 10 years then the trees got too tall to see over and too thick to walk through. It’s finally starting to thin out enough to see a ways.

Thanks! Fires have come through here too and I was wondering how trapping will be after that.
I’m sure Marten won’t like a charcoal forest, but maybe fox will be in there looking for mice and rabbits in the new grass!

Actually marten will likely be one of the first to show up. They won't live out in the burn because the overhead cover is limited. But they sure will use the edges of the burn.


The fire that's burning now is running into an old burn that is probably getting close to 20 years old. The moose in that burn are incredibly dense. The access is very difficult so their biggest worry is wolves. But it is a heck of a habitat for them right now

Interesting! Thanks!!

Is there much fuel for it when it hits the old burn?

Yeah there is . Lots of standing dead spruce. Could get really hot

Hope all goes well White17. Nothing worse than fire on the prairie or the forest!!!!

Lots of dry lightning all around last night.

6 new fires in the last 24 hours. 4 east of me and 2 north. The one to the south continues to grow. They finally are hitting it with retardant and additional people on the ground. It appears that rain could begin any moment but nothing yet

I am hoping the rain comes and helps. We had the longest lightning storm with rain I think I can ever remember, it was well over 2 hours solid. I don’t do local news or don’t follow face book to find out how many fires were started but I hope it wasn’t many. We were starting to get smoke from a fire by Ft. Knox mine before the storm.
Wish you well Ken!

I'm starting to fell like ol' Bulletbox wishing for rain

Thanks Larry. Our tankers coming out of Palmer were all being diverted to your area. Seems like that may have slacked off a bit

It's RAINING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to hear the rain has arrived. Hope it extinguishes the fire!

Chris

I'm glad to hear it's raining . I hope you get enough to help knock the fires down.

Yes, you are getting good rain now !

Love to see cool temps and rain in summer. mid 30s , and good rains for some days in the NW regions here.

Don't know why so many love baking sun and the heat !

Years ago, when the summers were always cool and rainy , those who moved into North Idaho from CA complained about the cool wet, and after a couple of years many moved out. Locals just smiled....along with the real winters ...really helped to thin out those who also didn't care for what the west was all about .

Enjoy the rain....

Great news Ken. [b][/b]
PTL.

That’s awesome!!!

Did the rain get her snuffed out ken?

No but it sure slowed it down a lot. We had a real frog-strangler for about seven hours. Rained so hard it knocked out my internet connection.

It did allow the guys to get control of the fire just east of me. That's a real relief !

Glad to hear!

white 17 -

I just had to resurrect this thread and comment Ken. Most people have the idea that forest fires are "bad". This comes, I suspect, from listening to, and believing the narrative, on MSM. In my opinion, nothing further from the truth. Wildfire, as you know, Ken, is an integral part of Alaska. Most of the resources that we use (lynx, marten, moose, etc) are dependent on periodic "renewal", facilitated by recurring wildfire. The best thing, in my opinion, that can occur, is mosaic natural wildfires that knock back or reset the natural progression of vegetation. Obviously, I'm all in favor of protecting trapline cabins and villages, but most of that area throughout interior Alaska, really needs to burn periodically. I'm sure you don't disagree.

My $.02....

Jack

So I guess controlled burns aren’t done out there?

Sure. We do plenty of fuel reduction and habitat enhancement fires in AK.

I can recall at least one project where we fired out over 50,000 acres in two days in the Fortymile Country (and the third day it rained and we were heroes!)

But the bottom line is that we get plenty of natural fire (from lightening starts) and really don't need to deliberately light much.

Pete

I agree Jack. As You well remember, our moose population was really being hammered by bears & wolves around 2000. If memory serves, your successor was out collaring moose calves in the late spring. Momma moose was not a happy camper and put some karate moves on Toby to save her calf. I believe it was the chopper pilot who fired a cracker round at momma moose and that started the Katlitna fire. The same old fire that this new one is now running into.

Well that old burn that I referenced above, is now providing just dynamite habitat for the moose and our population has recovered tremendously. Wolf control has helped a great deal and bear relocation helped somewhat.


This new fire is now 44% contained and "mopping up " has begun. We got a LOT of rain last night.

EDIT: this fire was caused by a campfire. The individual had camped there two weeks before the fire broke out. He thought he had put it out and claims he used lots of water and stirred the ashes. We all know how fire , in this country, can burn and move underground for a long distance and a very long time before coming to the surface again.

I understand that, but wouldn’t more controlled burns reduce the fuel for the natural fires? It seems most fires I hear about are in areas where they haven’t been burned before if ever. That’s a lot of fuel waiting to ignite. We keep ours on a three year rotation and they can sometimes be a handful. Can’t imagine 10+ years of fuel on the deck.

Oh Snap said there was a fire near Fort Knox. I guess it must have been close to twenty years ago I was working at the mine and that entire area was ablaze. Went home smelling like you'd spent the day downwind of a smoldering campfire. Couldn't see across the mine some days. Stunted black spruce, wouldn't think there'd be anything left to burn.

I went through Ft. Knox mine about 4 or 5 years ago. I don't recall seeing evidence of a fire.

We could see the fires burning in the distance from the road going into the mine. It doesn't seem (memory) like it was that far off. There were days when you couldn't see the far side of the mine for the smoke.

I can believe that !!

What an interesting place !!

What took you down there, Ken? I'm glad you got the rain. Couldn't help but notice some planes in one of your pics and wondered if any of them were fabric.

Posco
Would that have been the wolf creek fire? I am trying to remember what year that was. There were 2 fires that joined and burned a huge area and smoke it seemed forever!

It could be. I remember days when it was questionable whether they would let us into the mine depending on which way the wind was blowing. I have pictures here somewhere I took of the fires from the mine road. The quality of the pics are poor because I waited too long before I had the film developed. I'll try to dig them out and post them up. They lost a lot of acreage that summer.

Possible there were some private aircraft in the area just rubber-necking. Those could certainly be rag airplanes but DNR doesn't use any as far as I know.
Mostly an Aero-commander for recon and admin. All the jump ships are metal as are the choppers and tankers of course


The superintendent at FT Knox was the son of a friend of mine. He took us through. Plus I am a freak about geology. The equipment is amazing !