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Show 2 - BLAZING TIMES . AUGUST 1993 A couple of weeks later, a spark More CHEATGRASS from Page 1. flew from welders welding a well _ casing on lower Bailey Lane, caught established and absorbing moisture, while young native plants often die of thirst. Mature native plants fare better, but because many are bunch grasses, cheat often sprouts up among them. As long as the ground is not disturbed further. balance can be maintained. This is where the danger of early grazing becomes a big problem. Cheatgrass also brings on the problem of fire danger. It dries out and goes to seed earlier than most, and growth is dense. Its downy spikelets 77/4/tt\\\‘ // rl\\\\ Fires of Summer ’80 Gone, but Not Forgotten “I left my cabin on Buchanan Lane to go get a fire extinguisher fiom my the nearby dry grass on fire, jumped across Bailey and up to Buchanan, and curved around to Groo’s current residence. Periodic gusts of wind heightened the flames, but the burn from the previous fire kept this one from spreading further up the valley and doing more damage. On the day of the second blaze Robyn remembers someone driving up the valley saying there was a fire, and that about a dozen or so people gathering hoses. Unfortunately, there folks (the Stucki’s) place in lower was also a fire in Castleton at the time, easily catch and burn, spreading fire. Its quick recovery and establishment of new growth after burns claims more land from native plants, and perpetuates Castle Valley, and by the time I got back I saw my place in flames.” Robyn and the fire truck was up there. Officer remembers vividly how fast the second fire of 1980 devoured every- pletely to the ground,” she said. “Everything was destroyed except a the cycle—more Cheatgrass, more fires, thing in its path. “A wall of flame moved up the huge brick lined wood stove, which was warped by the intense heat The concrete pad the house stood on is still every three to five years. Where fires consumed 25,000 to 30,000 acres thirty valley,” Castle Valley mayor John Groo recalls. “It was virtually unstoppable until the wind shifted and the fire braked itself. It really wasn’t much of a fire fight, it was more of an observation. The single most impressive thing was watching the flames years ago, wildfires in the same area blow toward the road, expecting the during an average year in the late ’805 were consuming 186,000 acres, despite improved fire fighting methods. These fires speed up soil erosion, reduce Ultimately we are left with less plant and animal diversity, and in a popu- road would be a fire break, then seeing the grass across the road explode in heat that made it go ‘poof’ and start the fire anew. You know, you can hear about fire, and imagine it, and know it’s serious, but there is no substitute for actually seeing it—the impact it lated area like Castle Valley we are makes on you is unforgettable.” fire would have taken out much more if faced with a growing fire danger. The first fire of the summer of ’80 started on Shafer Lane when flames got the area was as populated then as it is now. more cheat. A 1990 study by Steve Whisenant, an ecologist then at BYU, indicates that, historically, areas of Idaho’s Snake River plains burned at least once every 60 to 110 years. Sites in Snake River now burn as often as fertility, and destroy wildlife habitats. I was chatting with a friend at a Moab market and found out why there is so much cheat up on our new lot—a the spread from a spark. I am plotting, although there doesn’t seem to be much information on how to eradicate it. Seems like pulling it up at the right time will help, while it’s still young and green and before it goes to seed. But with so much growing throughout the valley and the winds that blow, this puny attempt might be futile. One dear “My little building burned com- there. We had a well, but no pump, which is why I went to my folks to get an extinguisher. A couple of fingers of the fire spread up the valley, but no one else lost their home.” “After the first fire, when you crested Pace Hill and looked at Castle Valley opening out in front of you, you could see a strip of black,” Robyn continued, “but after that second fire there was a big black splotch, a great big swath of black, going all the way up the valley.” Groo and Robyn both maintain the away from a fellow burning garbage. “That two-fire summer of ’80 The wind fanned the fire to Buchanan Lane and then shifted. As the fire circled back on itself, it burned itself out, according to Groo. followed a damp spring that created a lot of vegetation, just like this year,” Groo reminds us. —Melanie Allardale Castle Valley Inn friend spent hours sweeping up piles of spikelets and awns. Next year will tell if her efforts are rewarded. From a larger perspective, wise and long-term range management might help. Few Westerners can envision the west without cowboys and cattle, but with such catastrophic consequences, the time has come for the cowboy to work together with the other people of this land. —Jil Kulander For the best rest out west. 801-259-6012 A Bed and Breakfast CVSR 2602, Moab, Utah 84532 Eric Thomson & Lynn Forbes Thomson |
