Critter Sitter's Blog: Oregon

Friday, June 19, 2015

Western Wildfires

With an incredibly wet month of May, Colorado does not have any wildfires at this time. However, one of the local newscasters said that there were six large wildfires burning, so I decided to look them up. This is one of my favorite information sites about fires: http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/ I have to admit that I was surprised to see 17 fires listed on the map.
I also have to admit that while I subconsciously knew about a wildfire in Alaska, I had not realized there were six fires in Alaska, and the Chisana River 2 Wildfire at the Alaska and Canada border is at 17,179 acres. The other eleven fires are within the contiguous United States.
In Oregon, the Little Basin Wildfire is 90% contained, but has burned an estimated 630 acres in Wallowa County. Just above the border with California, the Buckskin Wildfire is estimated to have burned 2,600 acres (an 8% increase in burn area since yesterday).
In California, the Saddle Wildfire is now 95% contained, but has burned 1,546 acres in Trinity County. In San Bernardino County, the Lake Wildfire is only 5% contained, and has burned over 13,000 acres.
In Coconino County, Arizona, the Horse Tank Wildfire is uncontained and has burned 1,515 acres so far. The Camillo Wildfire, also in Coconino County, has burned 3,300 acres. The Kearney River Wildfire in Pinal County has burned 1,100 acres ( a 265% increase from yesterday); none of these fires are contained. The WhiteTail Wildfire in Gila County has destroyed 600 acres and is uncontained. In Cochise County, the Hog Wildfire has burned 1,670 acres (an increase of 149% from yesterday), and is also uncontained.
In New Mexico, the Pinon Wildfire in Catron County has burned 110 acres and is uncontained.
The wildfires in Alaska are the Card Street Wildfire at 7,578 acres, the Sockeye at 7, 066 acres, the Stetson Creek Wildfire at 500 acres, the Healy Lake is at 10,000 acres, the Tanana Slough Wildfire has burned 718 acres, the Michigan Creek is at 600 acres, and then the Chisana River 2 Wildfire mentioned above.
That means 48,141 acres have burned in Alaska, and 26,071 acres have burned here in the west. That equals 74,212 acres, or 115.956 square miles of destroyed habitat. And the western fire season is just beginning...