The Dragon-Bravo Fire
Even in the past, 'Fire benefits forests' was always an oversimplification. In 2025 it is a dangerous if not delusional mantra. For today’s climate and drought-stressed forests, fire is an existential threat under virtually all conditions—including what used to be safe.
If you’re a forest administrator and you haven’t updated your thinking to reflect the reality of the Anthropocene, this is how your stewardship will end: in catastrophe.
— August 5, 2025
Andy Lewicky is the author and creator of SierraDescents
Walter Kibler August 5, 2025 at 10:03 am
Treating a wildfire in the dead of summer in Arizona as a controlled burn? That seems ridiculous to me. I'm guessing you're in Flagstaff right now? Is there any smoke there?
Andy August 5, 2025 at 3:42 pm
It's a bit hazy but air quality is good in FLG. The four-corners high responsible for Arizona'a summer monsoon now tends to set up as a larger, persistent blocking high that creates a dry and breezy SW flow over the state. We don't get clockwork July-Aug rains anymore. I will never understand NPS's lack of urgency in those first critical hours when the fire could have been contained
Joseph J Gregory August 7, 2025 at 1:52 pm
This is deeply distressing. What possessed them to attempt that in the dead heat of summer?