Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Could I get an answer to a question that I have had for some time?
I went to a meeting where I was warned about Juniper -- that they fueled fires.
On the other hand, it seems like juniper is a slow-growing hard wood and might not burn that easily. It might be preferable to anything else that might grow on the property.
I have five acres -- mostly Chamisa, snakeweed, and Juniper. I try to clear out the dead stuff -- but leave the live Juniper alone.
Could I get an answer to a question that I have had for some time?
I went to a meeting where I was warned about Juniper -- that they fueled fires.
On the other hand, it seems like juniper is a slow-growing hard wood and might not burn that easily. It might be preferable to anything else that might grow on the property.
I have five acres -- mostly Chamisa, snakeweed, and Juniper. I try to clear out the dead stuff -- but leave the live Juniper alone.
Am I making a mistake?
I've seen both sagebrush and juniper burn furiously in dry enough conditions. Piñons go up like Roman candles. Fires in piñon-juniper ("P-J") don't occur often, but when they do, they can be nasty. The firefighters killed near Glenwood Springs, Colorado during the Storm King fire in 1994 were fighting a fire in a "P-J" area.
I've seen both sagebrush and juniper burn furiously in dry enough conditions. Piñons go up like Roman candles. Fires in piñon-juniper ("P-J") don't occur often, but when they do, they can be nasty. The firefighters killed near Glenwood Springs, Colorado during the Storm King fire in 1994 were fighting a fire in a "P-J" area.
Piñon is a pine (I think) and I'd expect it to burn rapidly. (But again, I don't know.)
The bark beetles take care of any potential P-J problem turning this area into a J area.
We don't seem to have much sagebrush either. The snake-weed and chamisa burn, but they don't seem to supply much fuel.
So what about Juniper alone? Should I cut it away from my house? Water it during dry times?
Junipers don't have the "aromatics" in them like piñons, pondeBullBoxer31, lodgepoles, etc. do, so they don't tend to ignite as readily. You will see a lot of junipers (colloquially referred to as "cedars" by many) with fire scars. As you note, they are very slow growing trees with very dense wood. The major problem with junipers, from what my forester friends tell me, is that--once ignited--they are very difficult to extinguish, and may smolder for days--even weeks. My personal experience bears this out--I was up in P-J area that had burned two weeks before my visit--there were still smoldering juniper stumps there. I would cut the juniper away from my house, I think.
Chamisa (rabbitbrush) and greasewood (chico) will also burn very furiously under the right conditions. When chico goes up, you swear that it's old tires burning from all of the black smoke. Stinks like hell, too.
rruff...concerning Lincoln Forest in southern New Mexico, if you are not aware of the fire rating associated with the energy release component (erc), you might be interested in the following link. ERC is a pretty good tool to measure the potential volatility of the fire situation.
I have no doubt that the fire danger is extreme... it's just that the measures taken (closing the all the forest and BLM lands to all humans) don't make sense. The Mescelaro res is upwind of town, and they are still open. The extreme danger exists in town also, yet people go about their lives as usual. I saw a guy using a chainsaw in town yesterday... my neighbor had a fire in the fireplace, etc. All the highways are open and subject to whatever stupid things people might possibly do to cause a fire. What sense does it make to close the public lands *completely*? My wife and I wanted to have a couple of beers and eat a sandwich over at the Cedar Creek picnic area which is less than a mile from the main road through town, and it is all closed... can't even park there. Can't even ride a bike on the paved highway up to the ski resort. WTF? It is an extreme show of doing "something" that actually helps not at all.
It does seem to be taken to the extreme and it seems like some of them here in Timberon are pretty paranoid but it sounds like they have a good reason to be. The ones that do seem to be paranoid don't do anything about the fire dangers lurking around in there yards but they'll be the first to tell you about the dangers of fire right now.
It may seem silly to close down the forests and restrict us from doing certain things but it takes only one person to do something stupid and I'm thinking that's what the good ol government is doing this for.
"Extreme fire danger" means that conditions are such that any stray spark may ignite a fire. Things like a spark from an ATV with a malfunctioning or missing spark arrester. A spark from a chain saw. A fairly common one: somebody parks a vehicle in some grass tall enough to make contact with the vehicle's catalytic converter (1,200 degrees or so). Not to mention from tossed cigarettes, matches, or illegal campfires or barbecues. To prevent those sources of ignition is why the forests are closed to the public in extreme fire danger situations. Closing the forest is an extreme measure to confront extreme conditions. If you had bunch of open pails of gasoline sitting in your garage, you probably wouldn't want somebody rummaging around in there--it's about the same thing. The difference is you could probably do something about the gasoline in the garage; there is very little that the Forest Service can do about the fire danger in the forests right now, except to try to keep ignition sources out of it.
I have no doubt that the fire danger is extreme... it's just that the measures taken (closing the all the forest and BLM lands to all humans) don't make sense. The Mescelaro res is upwind of town, and they are still open. The extreme danger exists in town also, yet people go about their lives as usual. I saw a guy using a chainsaw in town yesterday... my neighbor had a fire in the fireplace, etc. All the highways are open and subject to whatever stupid things people might possibly do to cause a fire. What sense does it make to close the public lands *completely*? My wife and I wanted to have a couple of beers and eat a sandwich over at the Cedar Creek picnic area which is less than a mile from the main road through town, and it is all closed... can't even park there. Can't even ride a bike on the paved highway up to the ski resort. WTF? It is an extreme show of doing "something" that actually helps not at all.
Just a spark from lightening can set off a forest fire, and spontaneous combustion.
It's people wanting to live in a dry SW forest, forest fires are nature's way of cleaning up the debris but the problem is that people build expensive homes in the forests and obviously don't want them to burn.
It's people wanting to live in a dry SW forest, forest fires are nature's way of cleaning up the debris but the problem is that people build expensive homes in the forests and obviously don't want them to burn.
There are some of us who consider trophy homes plunked in the middle of Rocky Mountain forests as "debris."
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Juniper alone
