Wildfires
 

Everyone OK out there? I've got family who are right on the edge of the evacuation area in Hutchinson. Here's hoping the wind dies down and they can get it under control soon. :(

I'm like Emporia. Nothing going on here but just down the road it is popping. In about every direction but west.

Remember "In the center of it all!"?

I've got family in the Hutch area too (grew up there actually) I'm incredible concerned at the moment. A lot of people I went to high school with are in the process of evacuating.

Did we just hit some sort of glitch in the matrix?

My mother and the rest of her town got evacuated to cold water, KS. She lives in tiny Protection.

Oh wow...I wasn't aware this was even going on.

Stay safe.


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I don't know if you're referring to my autocorrect or the family we both have in the area. Aren't we both on the front range now too?

You're on the front range? So am I. This is really getting eerie. Are you currently wearing a neon green down vest?

Also from Hutch and have Family and Friends who have evacuated. Hope they get this thing under control or it rains.

I thought I'd give you all a glimpse of some of the insanity I'm seeing in my facebook feed. My old high school just cancelled school for tomorrow, about a dozen of my friends evacuated, and the Mega Dillon's in Hutch just ordered an evacuation.

Any numbers on how many acres? I haven't heard a word from any of the fires around.

From what I'm hearing those north of 30th got a text asking them to evacuate. I'm not sure of the overall acreage.

Referring to the autocorrect. I can't even tell what it was you were trying to say.

But yeah, I'm in the Denver metro. You're out here these days too?

i know what its like during brush fires. we had a bush fire start from national guard ordinances being too hot on the tall brush. i was in the middle of a family members yard with a garden hose trying to keep embers from crossing the road with a garden hose. nothing like staring up at 100 foot of flames as it barrels thru all the underbrush. granted this is a little bit different terrain, it does get tense.

My apologies. Presently evacuating*. This often happens when I post from my phone.

I made the jump from Lawrence to the Springs in August. I've absolutely loved it from the day I made the move.

This is the updated evac area.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a107e3dbb9.jpg


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Dodge City was a **** hair from burning down.

Whatever.

Just kidding. Do they know how this started?

I haven't heard yet. If the south part would have burned down it would have been an improvement.

A shot from Hutchinson yesterday.

Fixed

Have Hootie and Cosmo tried to blame the wildfires on the new mods yet?

I'm pretty sure Rudy Lost the Toss did.

It appears that Mr. Plow was displaced for awhile. Said they were allowing them back in this evening, though.

Sounds like they may catch a break today but not over yet.

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...72&oe=592FAF3B

http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article137397593.html


Sad deal for those in the path of the fires.

Ain't nobody got time for that

There was a huge ass tornado this week by Dodge City not that it would hurt Dodge City could clean that town up but I do have friends and these fires have been out of control I think they are getting a grip on them. My brother had to detour to get home he does work in Dodge City and drives back to our home town of Hanston.


So 2017 is leading off with celebrity deaths and shows no mercy with fires and tornadoes. What a fun year this is going to be.


We need rain / Rain Man can you do a dance for us flatlanders?

That's a tough out.

I think pretty much every acre of grass burned in those areas. So any cows that were alive need hay right now. And I'd guess most gay burned in the fires.

Scary shit man. Fire in this part of the world is a horrifying proposition.

I literally looks like another planet where the fires were. This is insanity.

Was checking on some friends yesterday.

The impact is longer term than many understand. The rainfall in those areas is on average 14 inches a year or less and the native grasses are all slow growing and can be difficult to reestablish. In addition its light soils so wind erosion is now in play that also hampers revegetation. As a result grazing will be non existent for some as long as 3-5 years.

There will be a lot learned from this from an agronomic standpoint. But the economic impact on those producers will be devastating.

I have some shots of where the fires where in the Panhandle of OK, but I cant get them to upload. Is there a file size limit?

Yeah I think there is a pretty good chance the grass isn't dead, but it needs water right damned now. I don't know much about the soils down there, but if they get to blowing the grass will die.

I had a field I had just bought catch fire in 2013 and I still don't have the burned are up to production with the rest of the field yet. And I've managed the ever living shit out of it. That made it one expensive ass piece of ground. :banghead:

Just use imgur

My range Science guys have been checking and this was a bit different than past big range fires. A lot more fuel because last year was a relatively wet year. And soils were warming and already dry. A lot of the native grass is likely dead. Thats a bad bad deal as you know. The cheat and invasives will come fast.

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Hopefully they're wrong. If the natives are dead that will be catastrophic.

As in "dead below the growing point?" Ugh!

part of the Colorado burn its confirmed, I have no doubt a high % on some parcels in KS will be as well.

yes....on some natives the true growing point is pretty high above the root nodes so its vulnerable in just right conditions. Its an ugly prospect for a period of time. For sure no grazing will take place

I'm a dumbass. Can anyone explain the consequences for what would happen if the native grasses were dead?

Start with the environment....rather dry in a normal year. New grass will have to come from the soil seed bank.

So any new seed germination is wholly dependent on moisture at the right time...these are warm season grasses. So they cannot germinate in cool soils like fescue can or weed grasses like foxtail or cheat.

Then they need moisture to establish...and that can be a very iffy thing in the western Kansas, Tx Panhandle, Colorado high plains.

They will take 2-3 years for the native grasses to make a comeback. An example is planting Native warm season Grasses in Western MO...we know it will take 3 full seasons to really establish the mixed stands we seed.

Thats a short explanation...

Yeah the deal is that the native grass out here (I don't know what's around hutch) is pretty slow growing and packs a pretty decent ration into the plant whether it's the growing forage or the dried biomass.

The problem is if it comes in with a weed like cheatgrass or kochia early or pigweed late it will be pretty hard on the soil and will have a very short period that the biomass is digestible for livestock. Also if there is a big flush of weeds it will take the available soil moisture for growing grass. Also weeds like kochia are allelopathic for grass.

It will take a long time for the prairies to heal

Prairie fires have been happening here long before settlement. Nature will recover, and probably stronger than before.