Flagstaff Fire Perimeters

I was trying to work out in my mind the locations of several of these Flagstaff-area fires with respect to Flagstaff, and with respect to where I spent the winter of 1985/86 (U.S.F.S. Ft. Valley Experimental Station). These perimeters are dated a bit (Eagle Rock - 6/20; Schultz - 6/23) and so the facts on the ground might be a little different than portrayed here.

That Schultz fire perimeter on the eastern slopes of the San Francisco Peaks is distressingly large. I just bet a lot of that area has thin soils too. If I recall, Sunset Crater NE of Flagstaff is evidence of fairly-recent volcanism, from which new soils are still being formed. Exposed to the sun's drying mercies on those steep, eastern slopes, the forest there is likely to recover only slowly. Together with that big, pre-existing fire burn on Mt. Eldon just north of Flagstaff, the Schultz fire burn presents evidence that firebug people are slowly taking a significant toll on the forest in the city's vicinity. Over the decades, the Ponderosa Pine forest of Northern Arizona is slowly being broken up and consigned to history's dust bin, particularly near highways, where people interact with the forest. It's hard to keep a large forest intact when so many people are there.

I remember reading an Israeli meteorology article wherein the author made the claim that, because of its unique combination of both plentiful sunshine and plentiful rain, Jerusalem had the best climate on Earth. Interestingly, in his opinion, Flagstaff had the world's second-best climate. I wonder if Jerusalem was once like Flagstaff, until people dramatically transformed the area. Now, people are slowly laying waste to Flagstaff's natural inheritance, perhaps faster than Nature can assemble it in the arid Arizona climate. Maybe in 3,000 years, Flagstaff will look something like Jerusalem does today.