In an effort to mitigate future forest fires on Mt. Lemmon, crews with the U.S. Forest Service will minimize down and pile small bushes on 775 acres starting in September, officers introduced Wednesday. 

The work will start on Sept. 1 when crews will use chainsaws to chop down “smaller diameter bushes” on a number of websites alongside Catalina Freeway, stated Starr Farrell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. Crews will work on websites together with Willow Canyon, Higher and Decrease Soldier camp, Mint Springs Trailhead, Ski Valley, and the Mt. Lemmon Observatory, Farrell stated in an announcement Wednesday. 

“Thinning is a device used to cut back heavy flammable gas loading round property, bodily enhancements, and infrastructure,” she stated. After reducing down bushes, crews will pile the logs the place they may treatment and these pile might be burned over the following one or two years, Farrell stated.

“As soon as the piles are burned, the potential for catastrophic wildfire is decreased within the thinned space, slowing the progress of fireside, decreasing its depth, and permitting simpler hearth suppression by firefighters,” she stated.

In 2020, a lightning strike ignited the Bighorn Fireplace, which chewed via practically 120,000 acres on Mt. Lemmon over 48 days till hearth crews, aided by monsoon storms had been in a position knock down the fireplace. 

This yr, a couple of small fires have ignited on the Santa Catalinas. This contains the Molino 2 hearth, which burned 115 acres and was began by a person firing incendiary shotgun rounds at rocks close to Molino Basin in April.

On Sunday morning, officers found a wildfire burning close to the Rincon Mountains in Saguaro Nationwide Park. Dubbed the Spud Fireplace, the small hearth is settled in a deep rocky drainage and was about one-tenth of an acre, officers stated. A helicopter crew was despatched to look at the fireplace, although hearth officers stated Sunday, they anticipated to not take motion due to “incoming precipitation and elevated humidity.”

“Because of the measurement, location and nature of this hearth, the park will transfer ahead with frequent monitoring. The anticipated rain over the following two days will hopefully add the mandatory precipitation to place this naturally occurring hearth out,” stated Leah McGinnis, the superintendent of Saguaro Nationwide Park.