Unit 1, 27, 29, 35a, 36b Hunt closure

[.270]

you have a lotta your ol' man in ya. how'd his place fare? Lark.

[Coach]

LOL, what do want in trade for that crystal ball?

[cdenton]

There is alot of ongoing effort as we speak to get dozer lines rehabbed, hazard trees removed, and whatever else needs to be done to get the area safe and let the public back in. Although the forest will more than likely stay closed til the monsoons can lower the fire danger. Ive spoke with the game and fish guys in camp daily and theyve said nothing about the closures and the hunts will go on. The forest service trying to close hunts for a year and such in unit 1 and 27 anyways is a bunch of garbage.

[billrquimby]

Don't know about unit 27, but nearly half of unit one's elk country was not even in the Wallow Fire's path. Also, there apparently are a great many areas within the fire's perimeters that the fire skipped.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us.

 

This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S.

 

Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country.

 

 

Not all of unit one is national forest. There also is a lot of state land and private land with elk on it. You may have to hunt in junipers instead of pines, but there are elk out there.

 

Bill Quimby

[Coach]

Don't know about unit 27, but nearly half of unit one's elk country was not even in the Wallow Fire's path. Also, there apparently are a great many areas within the fire's perimeters that the fire skipped.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us.

 

This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S.

 

Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country.

 

 

Not all of unit one is national forest. There also is a lot of state land and private land with elk on it. You may have to hunt in junipers instead of pines, but there are elk out there.

 

Bill Quimby

 

Thanks Bill. You are spot-on as usual. And my response was, well "hasty". None of us know for sure what the situation is going to be in September. Many of my favorite areas in unit 1 were not affected by this fire, but will undoubtedly hold higher concentrations of elk this fall. I am sure hunt will be allowed, and I'm guessing that the speculated closures are being exaggerated. I'm looking forward to a great hunt, and possibly breaking that magical 360" mark. I've taken a couple of nice bulls from unit 1, but in the 330 range. I think this will be the year to get one of those great bulls I've seen and video'd over the years. I was really close last year, with a nice 350+ bull at 100 yards with a ML, but somehow missed. I still, for the life of me, can't imagine how I missed. I ended up actually making a 257 yard shot on the last day of the hunt not 1/4 mile from where I missed the bigger one, so I know the gun wasn't at fault - I just flat-out blew it. This time though, I have to get inside 50 yards

[cdenton]

Don't know about unit 27, but nearly half of unit one's elk country was not even in the Wallow Fire's path. Also, there apparently are a great many areas within the fire's perimeters that the fire skipped.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us.

 

This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S.

 

Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country.

Who reacted to slow to begin with and let a small fire turn into a huge fire?

[Coach]

Don't know about unit 27, but nearly half of unit one's elk country was not even in the Wallow Fire's path. Also, there apparently are a great many areas within the fire's perimeters that the fire skipped.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us.

 

This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S.

 

Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country.

Who reacted to slow to begin with and let a small fire turn into a huge fire?

 

I will be the first to admit being an arm-chair quarterback on this one. I wasn't there when the big decisions were being made. But the fact remains that this fire was small and containable for around a week before it doubled, then tripled in size. You don't need a PhD to recognize that a fire in the Bear Wallow wilderness, an area devoid of pretty much any management for 20+ years, combined with very little spring moisture and daily high winds - over 50 MPH on some days, could turn into a huge mess. So, to answer your question, I think the USFS reacted way too slowly and let a small fire turn into a HALF MILLION PLUS acre fire that didn't have to happen.

 

Any 3rd grader could grasp the situation and make an informed decision faster than our Feds did.

[tjhunt2]

It breaks my heart to see so much forest go up in smoke. It will take a lifetime and then some for us to see if it will ever recover. So sad for us but the next generation will profit from this. The forest service we have now has alot to improve when it comes to management the forest we we we we we we own. Dam they piss me off.

 

TJ

[200"mulie]

close em down....piss of the hunters...give the animals to recover.....they are going to get slaughtered in some areas....i played it smart and applied for other units..sorry for the rest of you if they do close it.....

 

 

Wow Nostradamus!

Even before those units burned ( 1 and 27 ) you knew it was going to happen? What are tonights powerball numbers?

 

 

i'm not telling ha well when you turkey hunt in the spring or spend time up there in the winter you can see just how dry it is....and there are a lot of careless people out there ....no rain in the forecast due to drought.....it will happen one day.....sad to say.

[ratherbehunting]

Don't know about unit 27, but nearly half of unit one's elk country was not even in the Wallow Fire's path. Also, there apparently are a great many areas within the fire's perimeters that the fire skipped.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us.

 

This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S.

 

Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country.

Who reacted to slow to begin with and let a small fire turn into a huge fire?

 

I will be the first to admit being an arm-chair quarterback on this one. I wasn't there when the big decisions were being made. But the fact remains that this fire was small and containable for around a week before it doubled, then tripled in size. You don't need a PhD to recognize that a fire in the Bear Wallow wilderness, an area devoid of pretty much any management for 20+ years, combined with very little spring moisture and daily high winds - over 50 MPH on some days, could turn into a huge mess. So, to answer your question, I think the USFS reacted way too slowly and let a small fire turn into a HALF MILLION PLUS acre fire that didn't have to happen.

 

Any 3rd grader could grasp the situation and make an informed decision faster than our Feds did.

 

Nahhh...you are fine. Just flew with a guy who's brother works for NF - we talked all about the politics and money involved in calling in tankers on this fire. The response was wayyy slow - they should have had tankers working this fire from day 1 or 2 ....it took them 5 days from what I heard. No forestry industry in this state and a powerful leftist environmental lobby not to mention some folks in the forestry dept who love the let it burn concept led to this sad event.

 

When the TV camera's showed up.... they finally called in the evergreen DC10 at $1 million for the "we are doing something....loooookie...." for TV.

 

I flew fire patrol one year in college and know a lot of guys who flew tankers and we all agree that the majority of politically minded NF managers wait to long to call in serious air assets on some of these fires.

[cdenton]

Don't know about unit 27, but nearly half of unit one's elk country was not even in the Wallow Fire's path. Also, there apparently are a great many areas within the fire's perimeters that the fire skipped.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us.

 

This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S.

 

Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country.

Who reacted to slow to begin with and let a small fire turn into a huge fire?

 

I will be the first to admit being an arm-chair quarterback on this one. I wasn't there when the big decisions were being made. But the fact remains that this fire was small and containable for around a week before it doubled, then tripled in size. You don't need a PhD to recognize that a fire in the Bear Wallow wilderness, an area devoid of pretty much any management for 20+ years, combined with very little spring moisture and daily high winds - over 50 MPH on some days, could turn into a huge mess. So, to answer your question, I think the USFS reacted way too slowly and let a small fire turn into a HALF MILLION PLUS acre fire that didn't have to happen.

 

Any 3rd grader could grasp the situation and make an informed decision faster than our Feds did.

You nailed it that the fire started small. Last time I checked every fire that has ever started has started small. For the containable portion of your post you answered it in the next sentence of why it wasn't containable and you are correct it doesn't take a PhD to figure that out.

[ratherbehunting]

 

Seems to me after two major fires AZ could use some of these based here full time.

[Elkhunter1]

The last time I worked with the Forest Service all I saw was three helo's at the Tucson Airport. That was right after the Aspen fire. The southwestern states all need to have several tankers based in them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as you stated. Maybe we all should write our congress and senate about the lack of brains in the Forest Service in our states.

 

Seems to me after two major fires AZ could use some of these based here full time.

[ratherbehunting]

Helo's are fine...but those buckets just don't hold the capacity of the tankers. When I got out of college I got offered a job working in forestry aviation management and choose to fly commercially instead. I sometimes wonder if I made the right decision...but when I see sad stuff like this I think I did.

 

I, along with every other airline pilot out based out of PHX watched Rodeo get out of control and the tankers get called in late on that one and watching the slow response on this one was as just as bad.

 

Hey look, for the gov't types out there I know it sucks - you are so constrained and so limited by what you can do. I heard about a NF guy who called in two tankers on a fire last year and he got reamed a new one....but the fire was out and never made the news. He didn't have any access and any way to get the ground crews into it. He made a judgement call and of course the managers above him called him in. He is still working apparently and ironically he made the right call because we aren't talking about another fire in AZ that got out of control.

[ultramag]

When it comes to a federal agency most of the time you can't expect any common sense. This trend is getting worse everwhere you look though.