Opal Wildfire Update #13

June 22, 2010

The Opal wildfire started just a little over five weeks ago.  Conditions were hot and very dry.  The fire driven by a strong wind moved very rapidly making it a difficult beast to subdue.

It moved so fast that in some areas it hardly touched the trees.  In some cases the needles are burnt only part of the way up.  Only time will tell if any of these will survive.  In other areas there is no question.  Tall groves of pine are burnt from the bottom to the top; the sand is blackened with burnt moss.  

These areas give off a spooky, eerie sensation.  It's like you are being told to leave -- there's nothing for you here.  Where barbed-wire fences divide the land, posts hang crocked on the wire; burned off at the ground they bounce in the wind hanging on by a single staple.  Other stretches of fence lay blackened against the ground -- only by looking up is the blackness broken by the blue sky.

Still, life is returning at an astonishing rate.  Our green sprout is now about nine inches tall.  The God-given rain has turned some areas lush green.  The grass waves in the wind as if sending out an invitation for all the grazers and the nibblers to return.  I was overjoyed to discover a set of tiny tracks in the sand.  My friend Mike from Athabasca phoned me during the early days of the fire and told me not to worry about newborn fawns being that their moms would not yet have given birth.  It seems that he was right because these tiny tracks belonged to a white-tailed fawn.  I did come across a few flowers but did not see a single bee or moth.  It will be interesting to see how soon they reply to their invitation to return to the Opal Natural Area.

Some time during the weekend of the 12th and the 13th the Opal West Natural Area was targeted by what is referred to as an 'organized swarm'.  It left close to 160 acres of sand dunes scarred by a maze of destruction. In my next email I will provide the pictures and explain what a 'swarm' is, how they are organized and their intent.

Thank you.

Richard

(Scroll down to view pictures with accompanying text)

An excellent example of a spruce tree burnt halfway up .

Burnt moss laying blackened on the sand.

Large sections of lease fencing looks like this or worse.

A blackened cathedral of burnt pine.

Our sprout has friends.

A green meadow against the burnt larch.

Tiny tracks.

Can somebody tell me what creates these mini volcanoes in the sand?