*sob*

[minsue]

I so hope they're wrong...

Cave Creek fire claims world's largest saguaro

The Arizona Republic
Jun. 28, 2005 11:15 AM

A week-old wildfire north of Cave Creek scorched the world's largest saguaro and the 46-foot cactus near Horseshoe Lake is not likely to survive, said Tonto National Forest spokeswoman Emily Garber.

The so-called Grand One on a ridge south of the lake is recognized in the National Register of Big Trees for its height, mass of limbs and a base circumference of 7 feet, 10 inches.

"That entire ridge did get burned," Garber said, adding that the Grand One and another large saguaro near it were burned by the Cave Creek Complex fire. "Chances are they are going to go. They were damaged."

No one has taken a close look this week at the giant saguaro, one of the icons of Arizona's Sonoran Desert.

The Grand One was identified in 2003 as the world's largest.

Since then, an equally giant saguaro was spotted near Mammoth, northeast of Tucson, said Ken Morrow, Arizona coordinator of the big tree register.

The two saguaros are listed as co-champions in the latest register.

Morrow, 51, a Phoenix native and nurseryman in Patagonia, is holding out some hope that the Grand One can survive the fire.

"Sometimes they survive if they just get blackened on one side," he said. "If it gets too hot it will cook them."

Saguaros, whose scientific name is cereus giganteus, grow only in Arizona, southeastern California and northern Mexico.

The Grand One is estimated to be between 180 to 200 years old.

It's closing in on 150,000 acres now and, unless one of my neighbors is insane enough to be using the fireplace right now, I can smell the smoke from my backyard. It's bad enough when the forests burn, but somehow the desert burning is so much more depressing to me. Every plant and animal that lives there has to fight so damned hard to do so, it just doesn't seem right for them to survive that and then lose to fire.

Edit to add pic of The Grand One:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/scottsdale/gifs/0604sr-saguaro-autosized141.jpg

 

[lucky-E-leven]

 

[minsue]

Whiney lil thing, ain't I?

 

[logophile]

Whiney lil thing, ain't I?

Well, since there's nothing I can do about the fires, I'd like to offer you the comfort of my arms and my giant pillowbreasts to cry into.

What? I'm trying to console you! I have no alterior motives, at all. *fingers crossed behind back*

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Whiney lil thing, ain't I?

Nah, it's understandable. It'd be like an earthquake shattering Mt. Rushmore to those living in the Dakotas. Home is home, and whenever historic pieces of it are destroyed there will be mourning. I feel for ya, babe.

 

[TxRad]

Fire!
Mother natures way of saying it's time to start over.......

 

[Liar]

Wow. That's one big cactus. Would be a shame if it gt wiped out.

Still, if the fire is a natural thingy, then that's the way it's s'posed to go.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

*HUGS*

Take heart lovely goosey. If it has lived 200 years, then it has already survived numerous fires. Men are so quick to write off things to cold logic, but many things exist, survive and thrive, despite logic.

*HUGS*

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I so hope they're wrong...



It's closing in on 150,000 acres now and, unless one of my neighbors is insane enough to be using the fireplace right now, I can smell the smoke from my backyard. It's bad enough when the forests burn, but somehow the desert burning is so much more depressing to me. Every plant and animal that lives there has to fight so damned hard to do so, it just doesn't seem right for them to survive that and then lose to fire.

Edit to add pic of The Grand One:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/scottsdale/gifs/0604sr-saguaro-autosized141.jpg

I don't know much about the desert or the animals that live there, but wouldn't the smoke and their "more distinct" senses of smell (not to mention other senses) give them time to move? I don't know what travel is like for animals in the desert, but around here, if there was a fire, the majority of the animal population lost would be domesticated animals. Of course, in Western PA, they can simply run. Weather isn't much of a factor when faced with such a threat as fire, so...

Am sorry to hear about the cactus and such...

Q_C

 

[minsue]

I don't know much about the desert or the animals that live there, but wouldn't the smoke and their "more distinct" senses of smell (not to mention other senses) give them time to move? I don't know what travel is like for animals in the desert, but around here, if there was a fire, the majority of the animal population lost would be domesticated animals. Of course, in Western PA, they can simply run. Weather isn't much of a factor when faced with such a threat as fire, so...

Am sorry to hear about the cactus and such...

Q_C

There's only so far to go... It's burning in rough terrain and moving at a pretty good clip. Faster than man can fight it, at least. The ecological worry would be that there are a number of endangered fish in that area. Even if they survive the fire, the water quality is shot.

It's not them I mourn, though. It's the damned saguaros.

 

[sack]

Will I live to see it branch?

I have a baby Saguaro in my greenhouse( about 2 feet high). Think I'll live to see it branch?


Sack

 

[lucky-E-leven]

There's only so far to go... It's burning in rough terrain and moving at a pretty good clip. Faster than man can fight it, at least. The ecological worry would be that there are a number of endangered fish in that area. Even if they survive the fire, the water quality is shot.

It's not them I mourn, though. It's the damned saguaros.

No love for fish? What the hell kind of bird are you?

 

[minsue]

I have a baby Saguaro in my greenhouse( about 2 feet high). Think I'll live to see it branch?


Sack

Two feet high doesn't sound like a baby. How long have you had it?

They branch after 60-75 years, according to the Saguaro Natl Park site.

 

[minsue]

No love for fish? What the hell kind of bird are you?

I don't want 'em to die...Does that count for anything?

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I don't want 'em to die...Does that count for anything?

Yeah, I guess, but you must get pretty hungry with that attitude.

Oh, by the way, it's raining!

~lucky

 

[minsue]

Yeah, I guess, but you must get pretty hungry with that attitude.

Oh, by the way, it's raining!

~lucky

Bitch.

You get rain and we get more fires. There was another today (small & already dealt with) that startled the hell out of me when I left work and had me literally standing stock still staring with my mouth hanging open because there was a thick cloud of smoke the stretched clear across the sky from east to west with the setting sun in the middle of these gorgeous swirls of smoke. I'm amazed I didn't crash on my way home, I kept seeing spots from staring at the sun too long. Not the brightest thing when driving on a freeway....

Wish I'd had my camera with me. Got these off of webcams for Tempe after I got home, but it wasn't nearly as impressive by then. (none of that in the pics be clouds...)