Summer - 2011

We're finally getting some needed rain.
Here in SW New Mexico, the "greening up" has begun to take effect.
Thank God.
I recall reading a Time or Newsweek magazine years ago which predicted that there would be more powerful tornadoes & hurricanes; more drought; more intense heat & forest & grass fires in the West; more flooding; and, warmer over night temperatures. That's what's called Global Warming now, but then it was covered under the concept of "The Greenhouse Effect."
For me, this isn't a problem.
I've accepted these premises as scientifically valid.
For those who won't subscribe to that theory, or it's effects, I'd have to say: how's that flat earth concept working for you in the 21st Century?
I've had a heck of a time finding an article I read as part of my research which illustrated one author's recollection of chasing Apache & the Apache having set the entire countryside on fire -- or, taking advantage of that natural occurrence & using it to stay ahead of the Americans. There are other instances of reading about Apaches setting grass fires to either cover their tracks (temporarily), or, just obscuring or blocking forward movement by Americans. There are probably some similar instances of the same tactics employed against the Apaches by the Spaniards & Mexicans.
Even so, the impression that was left with me when I read the report (I'm thinking it was somewhere between 1850 & 1860, before the Civil War began), that "the entire sky was ablaze from fire." What a weird sensation that must have been. There would have been no quick exit from massive fires coming one's way in those days. No choppers or autos or trucks, available to jump out of the way.
North of Silver City, on the Arizona side of the border joint State line, nearly 500,000 acres or more (the entire space marked out for the Gila Wilderness [558,000 acres] has burned. I've not seen the aftermath of the burn, but my impression is that it will be pretty stark. That forest is, in effect, so badly damaged that the concept of a nice quiet & backwoods cabin may be gone for a generation up there. Luna, Alpine, Springerville, Greer, Eagar, from what I hear, have all seen those huge Ponderosa Pine forests burned up. The fish in rivers, streams & lakes may be effected by the ash that is in those waters.
And who would want to spend any time in a forest that runs burned for miles & miles?
Nature has a way of settling scores. Since coming here, I've experienced summers where smoke was a dominant olfactory experience on a daily basis, three or four times.
The Apaches must have had similar years. While I've never read this, I'd guess the Apaches must have just pulled out of certain areas for good sometimes over the 250-300 years we can honestly say they've been here.
Here are a few photos that I took months ago of a fire that sprang up near Ft. Bayard, which was part of the Apache campaigns.
I'm not sure if Ft. Davis was threatened, but Ft. Huachuca was. The fire near Ft. Bayard, had it been burning more easterly, would have burned up some of the old post-Apache Wars cabins. They're not kept up & are probably bone dry (old wood). They would have gone up like matches.
Two photos of the Ft. Bayard fire; one of smoke jumper outfits @ the Grant County Airport.