Another Mountain fire revisit

I took another walk up the wash I visited just before, and a few times after, the Mountain fire on the Tonto National Forest last June. What a difference! The wildflower display was exceptional. Glandularia gooddingii was especially abundant and scented the air the whole time I was there. Mexican poppies and Texas toadflax also had good shows. Non-native filaree was abundant (as during my last visit) though done flowering and now distributing its corkscrew seed everywhere.

The fire released many nutrients into the soil and the annual plants there are making good use of the bounty. But no flowering was seen on the shrubs like Quercus turbinella, Rhus aromatica, Rhamnus ilicifolia and others. I suspect that flowering occurs on second-season growth on these shrubs, and they haven't had a second season; all living tissue is regrowth. As noted before, though, almost all the individual shrubs survived at the crown and are returning.

The animal life is returning as well. In January I saw exactly one other animal life form besides me, a single honeybee. Today I heard a Northern Mockingbird, heard and saw a pair of Mourning Dove, and heard some Black-throated Sparrows calling. Common Buckeyes lived up to their name. Other pollinators were there as well, and one Pallid Grasshopper stopped long enough for a couple of photos.

Many Homo sapiens were in the area, though not up this wash, as the wash is fenced at the road. If not for the fence, they would have been up there as well. Numerous OHVs were going up and down the unfenced washes on the north side of Horseshoe Dam Road. Near-constant traffic. Tonto National Forest is a popular destination for those seeking to relieve their CoViD-19-induced boredom.

I found and removed a couple of dozen Oncosiphon piluliferum plants; all individuals, likely arising from seed blown into the area by wind. Slowed the invasion I hope, but did not, and cannot, stop it.

About half the locations are approximate; the lithium batteries in my GPS stopped lithing.

Posted on April 10, 2020 01:48 AM by stevejones