new largest fire in NM state history...less than one year after the previous record
The Whitewater-Baldy fire burning in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico now exceeds 170,000 acres, which exceeds the 160,000 acre Los Conchas fire that occurred in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico last summer. See Inciweb for details: Link
This is a true color image from Terra taken yesterday.
http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subset s/?subset=NewMexico.2012151.aqua.1km
A photo from the Mormon Lake Interagency Hotshot Crew:
Link
Fires like this not only have direct costs high into the millions, but will impact fisheries, wildlife, and ecosystem functioning for many years. One can see from photos like this, that in many areas, the density of the forest is higher than it likely was historically, which is probably a contributing factor in the destructiveness of this blaze and others in recent history (Los Conchas, the recent fire near Bastrop, Texas). Historically, frequent, low intensity fires maintained an open forest of mostly larger size class trees, and most fires were restricted to the herbaceous, grassy vegetation on the forest floor.
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