Figured I'd give you all an update on this as those of us south of the fire are starting to see the after effects.
I live in Clifton, AZ. About 31 miles south of the Wallow Fire. And the easy part of the fire is over. There were threee major watersheds affected in this fire.
The San Francisco River watershed (where I live) is completely destroyed. Pretty much the entire river has been rendered devoid of life due to the sediment runoff and the acidity of the ash. The river runs the color and consistency of chocolate syrup when it rains. Many endangered species have pretty much been wiped out due to massive fish kills. Spikedace and loach minnows and the Chiracahua leopard frog are among them. The cottonwoods along the river are turning yellow and dropping their leaves already. USFS tells us it will take 5 to 10 years for the river to recover. Wonder how SAn Carlos Dam is going to handle all this?
The Salt River watershed has also sustained heavy damage. It feeds the area around Phoenix. The extent is still unknown at this point.
The Little Colorado River watershed has also sustained heavy damage due to sediment runoff and the acidity of the ash.
We are being told to stay of the Coronado Trail (Route 191) due to mudslides and trees falling across the road in the burnt areas. So right now it is pretty much a travel at your own risk thing. The bad thing is that this fire has been predicted for over a decade. No one learned from the Rodeo-Chediski fire.
After talking to some friends that were there (I tried to get my red card straightened out), the fire behavior displayed in this fire was nothing like anyone has seen before. This fire was jumping canyons instead of following them and was actively back burning downslope AGAINST the wind. IT was crowning out in areas that was not predicted and lightly burning area that were expected to go through a hard burn. This fire was a warning for what is to come if things are not changed.
There will be a salvage sale coming out this spring. But with nearly 125,000 acres and a little over 1 billion board feet of lumber to be salvaged, I really don't think we will make a dent in it before it goes bad. Some of these trees are massive, 40+ inches in diameter. Best bet would probably be to high grade it and get what we can.