You can view this map better by going to Active Fire Map

And draw your own conclusions..

Murphy Fire west of Tubac...photo by Hugh Holub

There has been a major controversy in the borderlands for several years between border security advocates who want to finish the border fence and concentrate Border Patrol Agents at the border  versus environmental advocates who want to protect the environment along the border for endangered species.

This conflict was highlighted in a Government Accounting Office report that documented how federal lan managers whose goal is environmental protection clash with the Border Patrol.

GAO confirms federal environmental laws and federal land managers hinder securing our border

Republicans Introduce Bill to Secure Border on Federal Lands, Protect Environment

It is very widely suspected that the Horsehshoe 2 Fire in the Chiricahuas as well as  the Muprhy Fire and the Pajarita Fire west of Nogales were started by illegal aliens or drug smugglers.

Why is this the case?

First, there have been lots of fires started in the borderlands by drug smugglers creating diversions. There are evenb radio traffic intercepts where the cartel goons ordered fires to be started.

There have also been a lot of fires started by accident by illegal aliens. How do we know this? First off there are widely known smuggling trails through the countryside. You find a camp where the fire started from…with debris of stuff bought in Mexico….connect the dots? 

These camps where illegal aliens pause are all over our countryside. If you want to see one, just walk behind the store on the frontage road in Tubac.

These are undispted facts in the borderlands that illegal aliens are accidentally causing fires and that drug smugglers are deliberately starting them. Folks are peeved that the Forest Service seems to be playing politically correct games about the cause of these fires.

Politically correct fire stories…who is burning down our wildlands?

Here is some of the communications I’ve gotten about the fires:

Murphy Fire:

This photograph was taken today, June 3, 2011.  Inside the center of smoke plume is  the Atascosa Ranch, residence of David and Edith Lowell, in Rio Rico, Arizona.  Ten miles north of the Mexican Border.

The Forest Service determined to allow this fire to jump Peck Canyon South and go up the North face of the Atascosa Mountains rather than attempt to control the fire, they are simply watching the fire now for four days rather than trying to fight it or control it.

The North Lowell allotment grazing pastures went up in smoke the last three days and the Forest Service is going to allow the second allotment to go up today.  The Lowell’s will have to sell their cattle because there is no grass for them to graze on.

The drums along the border say that Border Patrol jumped a group of 12 marijuana backpackers who intentionally set the mountains on fire to effect their escape.  Allegedly, between two and three of the illegal alien marijuana backpackers were apprehended and admitted setting the fire.  Also, one of these arsonists is reported to be on life support at a local American hospital.

The beating drums also say that the Forest Service will not admit that the fire was caused by illegal aliens, only that it is human caused.

The border is not secure, America is in jeopardy as are all residents along the Arizona Border.  Do not believe otherwise.

………

….the Murphy fire entirely consumed our son’s allotment (the Murphy allotment that formerly belonged to the Cummings) and burned all of ours down to the natural gas line. We had some anxious moments yesterday afteroon and even packed up some belongings, but I have now moved most of them back into the house from my car! The plan is for the fire to go on its way south along the gas line at least to the Ruby Rd. We hear it has crossed over the ridge at the top of our Ramanote allotment into Bear Valley. From now on it will be easy to tell who has been walking through this popular gateway to the U.S because they will be all covered with black smudges!

Take a look at this map which shows the Murphy Fire origins. https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ftp/InciWeb/AZCNF/2011-06-01-15:25-murphy-fire/picts/pict-20110607-235548-1.jpeg

Those familiar with the area know that there is zero chance a hiker or hunter or someone was out on the smuggling trails at night where those two fires started.

The irony is that the Pajarita Wildnerss Area (where the second fire started) has been partially destroyed  (and may ultimately be 100% wiped out before this is over) and virtually all of the proposed Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness Area has been destroyed by the fires.

Rather than compromise and allow border security to be tightened at the border…. the obvious goal of open border and environmental advocates has been to prevent the Border Patrol from being concentrated at the border.

This leaves the areas open  near the border to drug smugglers and illegal aliens.

Open border and environmental advocates kept both the area west of Nogales open to illegal entry and drug smugling, as well as the smuggling corridor open  into the Chiricahua Mountains.

There are some folks now asking the question….where does the money come from to fuel environmental groups and open border advocates who fight Border Patrol access to the border?  With billions of dollars at stake, it is not unrealistic to guess that through secondary pipelines some drug cartel money could be ending up supporting anti-border security efforts.

Illegal aliens and drugs smugglers could give a rat’s rear end about protecting our environment.

The result is a lot of wild country is gone now.

As they say…”the road to Hell is paved with good intentions”.

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Politically correct fire stories…who is burning down our wildlands?

The fire next door….this time in Tubac..updated information

Chiricahua Mountains … another “sky island” turned to ash

There Are No Cool Heads in Portal…commentary by Ed Ashurst

Forest Service Takes Heat Over Using Fire Retardant to Fight Wildfires

As the Murphy and Horseshoe 2 fires run out of countryside to burn, the recovery is already starting.

What has not been reported in the urban media is the devastating impact the fires have had on southern Arizona’s ranching community.

One rancher in Santa Cruz County had lost 13,000 acres of his grazing lands so far between 2 fires…and the damage is not over. Other Santa Cruz ranchers lost closer to 100% of their grazing lands.

There is a long list of ranchers over in Cochise County on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains that also lost all or major portions of their grazing lands in the Horseshoe 2 fire.

The first order of business in the ranchlands was to get the cattle out of harm’s way as the fires raged across the countryside. As far as I’ve heard this was pretty successful.

But now the grass is gone and there won’t be any feed available on the range until August at best.

There is hardly anywhere the cows can go because there are strict limits on federal and state grazing allotments, so you cannot just move your cows to a neighbor’s pasture even if the neighbor is willing.

Right now there is a hay supply program starting for the Wallow Fire ranch victims.

To donate to the hay fund for the Wallow Fire ranchers please use the Gila Livestock Growers Assn. storefront

Story:  http://gazetteonline.blogspot.com/2011/06/help-rancher-victims-of-wallow-fire.html?spref=fb

Donation link: http://gilaranchers.fatcow.com/store/page3.html   Click the bottom link to donate the title is (Donate To Keep Up This Website) but you will type in hay fund instead.  

For more up to date information on the Wallow Fire and it’s impacts go to http://www.glenwoodgazette.com/

Expect similar efforts in the next few days for Cochise and Santa Cruz county ranches.

With Governor Jan Brewer’s Declaration of a State of Emergency for the Wallow Fire in Apache and Greenlee counties starts the process for a FEMA disaster declaration and opens the door to FEMA sssistance.

Governor Jan Brewer Issues State of Emergency Declaration
Activates State Emergency Operations Center to Further Coordinate State Response Efforts
PHOENIX – Governor Jan Brewer today signed a Declaration of Emergency in response to the wildfires raging in Apache and Greenlee Counties. This declaration releases $200,000 from the Governor’s Emergency Funds (via the State General Fund) to pay for emergency responses and recovery expenses for damage resulting from the fires.

The funding will support costs not covered by the federal fire management assistance grant, as well as recovery efforts following suppression of the fire. The Governor’s Emergency Declaration also authorizes the Adjutant General to mobilize the Arizona National Guard as necessary to protect life and property.

In addition, the Governor has called for activation of the State Emergency Operations Center, as of 8 a.m. Tuesday. The State Emergency Operations Center provides coordination and direction for all state emergency response activities to assist in the protection of life and property within Arizona. The State Emergency Operations Center, located at the Papago Park Military Reservation, 5636 E. McDowell Road, Phoenix, is under the direction of Lou Trammell, Director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management.

Governor Brewer is authorized under state statute to declare a state of emergency. The declaration directs the following actions:

a. Declare that a State of Emergency exists in Apache and Greenlee Counties due to the Wallow Fire, effective May 29, 2011 and continuing; and

b. Direct that the sum of $200,000 from the general fund be made available to the Director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management to be expended in accordance with A.R.S. §35-192, A.A.C. R8-2-301 to 321, and Executive Order 79-4; and

c. Direct that the State of Arizona Emergency Response and Recovery Plan be used to direct and control state and other assets and authorize the Director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management to coordinate state assets; and

d. Authorize the Adjutant General to mobilize and call to activate all or such part of the Arizona National Guard as is determined necessary to assist in the protection of life and property throughout the State.

To date, all costs associated with response to the Wallow Fire are being supported by the federal fire management assistance grant. Visit the Arizona Emergency Information Network website, www.azein.gov, for real-time incident updates, preparedness and hazard information and multimedia resources.
###

Ranchers in Cochise and Santa Cruz county are praying for rain and for Givernor Brewer to also declare a disaster emergency in those counties.

An interesting thing about a “disaster”……when bad stuff happens like tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires…. a city, county or group of counties, the state and the feds themselves can declare a “natural disaster” and get FEMA and other federal assistance, including getting reimbursed for local costs to deal with the disaster. FEMA assistance can include loans to rebuild.

FEMA.

This is a complicated process, including being able to qualify with sufficient financial damage, which sould not be an issue here.

Most jurisdictions have “emergency response plans” and know the drill. You can bet the fire damaged counties in Arizona are busy looking at this stuff.

So far no one has been killed and building damage is minimal.

But it will be a long time before the ranches recover.

Meanwhile we are all already noticing a lot of wildlife that fled the fires and has come down out of the mounatins. Lord only knows how much wildlife was lost in the fires.

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News from the rangelands (emails):

Murphy Fire: “…the Murphy fire entirely consumed our son’s allotment (the Murphy allotment that formerly belonged to the Cummings) and burned all of ours down to the natural gas line. We had some anxious moments yesterday afteroon and even packed up some belongings, but I have now moved most of them back into the house from my car! The plan is for the fire to go on its way south along the gas line at least to the Ruby Rd. We hear it has crossed over the ridge at the top of our Ramanote allotment into Bear Valley.

“From now on it will be easy to tell who has been walking through this popular gateway to the U.S because they will be all covered with black smudges!

……..

“Looks like your fire is burning further south, up top now and on the west side?,  will it get into Rucker, Glenn’s, 99Bar, or into Boss’s and Husted’s? This is pathetic! Border fires burned out a lot of Bell’s and his neighbors (west of Nogales), most of dela Ossa’s (Lochiel, S. of Patagonia), and Parker Canyon, Bursich’s and Lone Mountain Ranch in the San Rafael Valley and foothills on west side of the Huachucas, besides those above/in Guadalupe Canyon and in the Animas Valley, and who knows where else. After the last two big fires in the Huachucas, all but one small grazing permit on the East side of the mountain were “permanently retired” from grazing, and the last one was told his permit will never be transferred if he wants to sell it. Coronado, Ash Canyon, Baumkircheners, Sump Canyon, Carr Canyon, Ramsey Canyon, and Brown Canyon permits are now all permanently closed to grazing, all were clients of mine at one time, only Gregovich’s (Miller Canyon and Nicksville) is left. The only thing the ranch owners could do was sell their deeded “base property”. Now all the canyons are full of fancy homes, the ranch owners were lucky they were near Sierra Vista or their property wouldn’t have been worth much. “