Brian and Zach, winners of Jack Links National Jerky Butte 2021. Still image from Jack Links video.
In recognition of National Jerky Day, Jack Links Jerky held a competition on June 12 in which four teams competed for a $10,000 prize and a year-long jerky subscription. It was held at Jerky Butte, Arizona, of course. The winners, Brian and Zach, donated their monetary prize to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
The competition over steep, rocky, brush-covered terrain involved not only going cross country as fast as you could but also solving a Jenga puzzle, a riddle, and a balancing act.
Jerky Butte. Still image from Jack Links video.
When told they had won, one of the team members said, “Thanks. I’m tired and I’m bleeding all over!” after having completed the race while wearing shorts. Later he said, “Support your forestry technicians.”
Congratulations Brian and Zach!
The Wildland Firefighter Foundation assists firefighters that have been injured on wildland fires and the families of firefighters who have been killed.
(Note: we were told that the two very generous guys are forestry technicians and wanted to remain anonymous. However, the video below which was the source of the images here and the names they competed under, was posted on YouTube.)
Brian and Zach, winners of Jack Links National Jerky Butte 2021. Still image from Jack Links video.
High Temperatures in Southern California Wednesday, June 16
Many areas in the Southwest will have high temperatures next week near record-setting levels. Excessive heat watches and warnings cover portions of Arizona, California, and Nevada.
For Las Vegas the Excessive Heat Warning says “life-threatening temperatures are likely.” The forecast for Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday is for highs of 115° and 116° where the record high for the dates is 115°. The forecast highs for the Southern California deserts next week are 10 to 18 degrees above daily averages.
There is an Excessive Heat Warning for the inland areas of Southern California for Monday through Wednesday, with highs of 103° and 104° on Tuesday and Wednesday at Riverside. It will be breezy there with 11 to 14 mph west winds gusting to 22 mph in the afternoons with the relative humidity around 20 percent.
Monday through Friday of next week the Hot Dry Windy Index (HDWI) will be above the 75th percentile in the Riverside area, peaking on Tuesday above the 95th percentile.
Hot Dry Windy Index, generated for the Riverside, Calif. area, June 12, 2021.
The HDWI in most of Arizona will peak Sunday, June 13, at the 95th percentile level then drop for the rest of the week closer to average.
The Fire Potential Index will be very high in mid-week for portions of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Western Colorado. The FPI is most similar to the Energy Release Component of the National Fire Danger Rating System in that both are moisture related indexes and neither indicates the effect of wind on fire potential.
Here is a very brief look at the effects of smoke on wildland firefighters, and below that, a longer look, in the embedded four-page .pdf document.
By Kathleen M. Navarro, U.S. Forest Service (currently with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Wildland firefighters are exposed to health hazards including inhaling hazardous pollutants from the combustion of live and dead vegetation (smoke), and breathing in ash and soil dust, while working long shifts with no respiratory protection. This research brief summarizes a study estimating long-term health impacts of smoke exposure for wildland firefighters (Navarro et al. 2019). The study estimated relative risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality from existing particulate matter (PM) exposure-response relationships using a measured PM concentration from smoke and breathing rates from previous wildland firefighter studies across different exposure scenarios.
Key Findings:
Firefighters who worked both short and long seasons (49 days and 98 days per year, respectively) were exposed to increased lifetime doses of PM4 across all career durations (5-25 years).
Wildland firefighters were estimated to be at increased risk of lung cancer (8 to 43 percent) and cardiovascular disease (16 to 30 percent) mortality across all season lengths and career durations.
These findings suggest that wildland firefighters should reduce exposure to smoke in any way possible.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NRFSN_ResearchBrief7_FirefighterSmokeExposure_HealthRisk_2020_final.pdf” title=”wildland Firefighter Smoke Exposure Health Risk2020″]
Rep. Louie Gohmert. Still image from video of the July 8 hearing.
A member of the United States House of Representatives elected by the people of Texas had an unusual question for an employee of the US Forest Service Tuesday. Jennifer Eberlein, the Associate Deputy Chief for the National Forest System in Washington, was testifying during a live streamed broadcast of a hearing before the House Natural Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands.
Rep. Louie Gohmert asked her a question. The topic at the time was climate change.
“I understand from what’s been testified to the Forest Service and the BLM you want very much to work on the issue of climate change,” Rep. Gohmert said. “I was informed by the immediate past director of NASA that they found that the moon’s orbit is changing slightly and so is the Earth’s orbit around the sun,” he continued. “And we know there’s been significant solar flare activity. And so is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to change the course of the moon’s orbit or the Earth’s orbit around the sun? Obviously, that would have profound effects on our climate.”
After a pause, Ms. Eberlien replied. “I would have to follow up with you on that one, Mr. Gohmert,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah, well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forest Service can make that change,” Rep. Gohmert said, “I’d like to know.”
After word got around about the unusual question, Rep. Gohmert tweeted about it. But he only wanted to clarify that he was referring to the Bureau of Land Management, not Black Lives Matter, and to make an accusation of “fake news” when someone quoted him correctly.
Astrophysicist Katie Mack weighed in:
There are two equally distressing possibilities for explaining this.
1) Gohmert thinks we can adjust the orbits of the Earth or Moon or tweak solar activity.
2) He’s knows that’s impossible & is being sarcastic because he thinks addressing climate change is always impossible. https://t.co/LFS9KF5ZK7
3-D map of the Pack Creek Fire, looking east at 1:25 a.m. June 11, 2021.
The Pack Creek Fire 12 miles southeast of Moab, Utah was very active through most of the night Thursday, moving east and northeast onto the upper slopes of Mt. Mellenthin where the fuel begins to thin above the 10,000-foot level. It was mapped at 4,944 acres Friday morning at 1:25 MDT. Two structures have been destroyed.
The firefighting resources assigned Thursday evening included 3 hand crews, 15 engines, and 3 helicopters for a total of 148 personnel. A Type 2 incident management team, Great Basin Team 4, has been mobilized.
Hot, dry, and windy weather caused three wildfires in Utah to spread more rapidly on Thursday.
Pack Creek Fire
The newest of the large fires is the Pack Creek Fire 12 miles southeast of Moab which has burned into the Manti-La Sal National Forest. At about 6 p.m. on Thursday Utah Fire Information reported it was about 650 acres, but as this is written at 9:30 p.m. it appears it could be well over 1,500 acres, based on heat detected by satellites. The blaze was caused by an unattended campfire. One structure has been destroyed and additional structures are threatened. Due to increasing complexity a Type 2 Incident Management Team has been ordered to manage the incident.
Firefighters at the Pack Creek Fire on Highway 6. USFS photo, June 10, 2021
Bear Fire
Two fires about 35 miles southeast of Provo were very active Thursday. As of 5 p.m. Thursday firefighters have been able to keep the Bear Fire west of Highway 6 in spite of Red Flag weather conditions.
US-6 remains closed Thursday night from milepost 221 to milepost 230. A detour route along Emma Park Road and US-191 is still in place. The detour route adds about 8 miles and 12 minutes to regular travel and gives drivers access to both directions on US-6, which will remain closed overnight and into Friday morning when the closure will be reevaluated.
A shift in wind direction Thursday has pushed more smoke into Helper and Price. Fire officials understand the increased smoke is concerning, but are confident they can keep the fire from reaching Helper.
Fire officials declined to release the size of the Bear Fire, but a very rough estimate based on heat detected by satellites indicates it has burned at least 6,500 acres.
Satellite photo of Utah Fires, at 5:41 p.m. MDT June 10, 2021.
Bennion Creek Fire
The second fire southeast of Provo is the Bennion Creek Fire which started June 4. On Thursday an additional mandatory evacuation area was identified — Aspen Cove in Scofield. Wednesday night the fire had burned 1,471 acres, but that number grew on Thursday.
Map showing the location of the Bennion Creek and Bear Fires in Utah, showing heat detected by satellites as late as 3:06 p.m. MDT June 10, 2021.Map showing heat detected at the Pack Creek Fire as late as 6:30 p.m. MDT June 10, 2021.
