Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

My campfire? No. I never have a campfire in the basin.

A (live) tree on fire with several other pieces of nearby deadfall burning as well. Probably hit by lightning the night before. The first two photos are closer shots of the main trunk. It burned all the way through in the several hours I watched. Amazingly, I found cell service in the basin and called the Forest Service and was waiting for them to send somebody out … I finally had to leave – felt like I was leaving an “untended campfire.” I did scoop handfuls and handfuls of dirt onto every place that was burning, but it was like using a garden hose on an inferno – it just didn’t help at all. I ran into some government folks on my way home, and I think they were going to check it out or send someone(s). I had given directions and left a rock cairn at the road and rocks across the road and a rock arrow pointing directly to it … The good news was that the tree was only about a 5-minute hike from the road and was pretty well surrounded by dirt and shale-rock soil. I don’t know how or if it would spread once the fire reached the “crown,” which was then on the ground. There were about seven separate little fires burning from this one tree. Fairly near Wildcat Spring just above a horse trail. It was pretty disturbing to catch sight of smoke rising into the sky in a heavily treed section of my beloved basin! It was a very helpless feeling to not be able to do anything, hoping the dirt stopped the spread. I’ll be calling again and will hopefully update this post with “all out”!

UPDATE: The Forest Service fire folks are monitoring it from the air. There was no smoke from it today, apparently. Weather conditions are favorable to leave it alone. We did get rain in Durango this evening, so hopefully the basin is getting more rain as well.

UPDATE 2: I had a great chat with the fire management officer this morning. The herd area manager has flown over the area twice, he said, and the lookout at the Benchmark fire lookout tower (a wonderful, eagle-eyed woman I met last year when the tower got historic designation) is keeping an eye on it as well. And he may go out today to have a look at it on the ground. She (fire lookout) said a good rain swept over the area yesterday – yay! The FMO did tell me they would like to see fire play a natural role in the environment there, and of course, I recognize that and understand it and support it. Fire suppression is not the only job of FMOs – it’s also to calm nervous nellies like myself. 🙂 And, of course, to recognize not every fire has to be put out. My second year in Colorado, the Missionary Ridge Fire blew up north of Durango. The plumes of smoke were massive in the afternoon – just about the time I was driving in every day to work, up and over and down Hesperus Hill with just about the perfect view. It looked like a nuclear cloud signaling the end of the world. I realize how much it affected me THEN when I see smoke NOW. I have also seen blackened stumps all around – there’s one burned to the ground on the way to this tree (as well as a big pile of what I’m pretty sure is bear scat!). Can’t say it doesn’t still – or won’t again – freak me out to see smoke again some gentle morning after a thunderstorm – but “they’re all over it,” as they say. 🙂 Thank you!

UPDATE 3: The basin has apparently had some good, heavy rain, and the FMO doesn’t expect any spread from that fire. Part 2 is that maybe with the summer monsoons (they’re here, so says the press!), we’ll start seeing water hold in the ponds and other depressions in the basin, giving the horses better access to better water than stinky Wildcat Spring and salty hoof-print puddles. C’mon rain!