Well, as I alluded yesterday, I had an article about the upcoming fire season in the Daily Press last night1. The article (June Fire Update — PDF) talked about the fuel and weather conditions in the Southwest, and about some of the recent fire activity we’ve had in the area.
One of the things that stuck [...]

I’ll have more on this in today’s edition of the Daily Press, but wanted to include two maps I found while doing research for a story yesterday (click for larger versions):

Both maps come to us from the Southwest Coordination Center. You can find updated (looks like daily) versions of these maps at the Center’s Predictive [...]

I’ve got an article (PDF) in today’s Daily Press discussing a recent project in the Mangas Watershed to restore fire into the natural cycle of the ecosystem. A big part of the article details the cooperation among the agencies involved in the process, but the real interesting stuff if the way prescribed burns are helping [...]

The Washington Post (hat tip to Tapped) today reports on Democratic efforts to sweeten the deal on a measure that would bring American troops home from Iraq next year:
House Democratic leaders are offering billions in federal funds for lawmakers’ pet projects large and small to secure enough votes this week to pass an Iraq funding [...]

I was tipped off by a good friend yesterday about a fire south of Whiskey Creek Airport (a few miles southeast of Silver City). I ran home for my trusty fire boots and headed for the action.
When I arrived on scene, there wasn’t any active fire, but firefighters were still patrolling for “smokers” to make [...]

Last month, I wrote a story (no longer on the Daily Press site, for PDF version click here) on firefighting costs, and a report issued by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. I looked at the ways in which New Mexico has worked to improve conditions in the wildland urban interface — where forests meet homes and [...]

Some scientists in Arizona and California think so (via Think Progress):
The increase in the number of large western wildfires in recent years may be a result of global warming, researchers say.
An analysis of data going back to 1970 indicates the fires increased “suddenly and dramatically” in the 1980s and the wildfire season grew longer, according [...]

From a news release this afternoon:
Gila National Forest personnel are expected to resume supervision of the Skates Fire today. The Arizona Central West Zone Incident Management Team projects total containment of the fire tonight. Forest personnel will oversee any remaining mop-up and land rehabilitation operations. Many firefighters demobilized Saturday, some returning to [...]

I heard from the Forest Service this evening that the Bear Fire is now at 20,000 acres. That’s two days of activity. No cause determined yet, but I think nature was not at fault, since there hasn’t been any lightning.
More here.

I know the site has been focused on fire issues lately, but, I haven’t had a chance to handle anything else. I’ve driven back and forth between the Lake Roberts area and Silver City so many times that I could do it blind. In the process, I’ve learned to take pictures out the side of [...]

The smoke lingering over Silver City is not from the Skates Fire, but from a new blaze detected earlier today.

Looks like all the predictions that the dry weather here in the Gila would increase the risk of fire were correct:
The Bear Fire, which started early this afternoon about 17 miles east of Alma, NM is [...]

(Click for larger image)
If you check the larger version (oh, my bandwidth is going to be insane) you can see a large volume of smoke just below the ridge line (look right-of-center). That’s a burnout operation, according to Dawn Sleight, a spokesperson with the Type 1 Incident Management Team out of California. That team [...]