Portal Firewise Plan
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Portal Firewise Plan ___________________________ June 2018 Figure 1. Central Portal, with Library (left) and Post Office (image courtesy of Barbara Miller) 1 Portal Firewise Community ‐ Firewise Plan, 2018 DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY The village of Portal (Figure 1) is located at the mouth of Cave Creek Canyon in southeastern Arizona (Cochise County). In the community’s early history (1800’s), its economy was based on a combination of ranching, mining and extraction of logs and fuel wood. More recently, Portal has become an internationally recognized destination for natural history tourism (especially birding), and for scientific research and education at the Southwest Research Station (SWRS) of the American Museum of Natural History. Scientific, educational and natural history tourism are major contributors to a local economy sustained by, and greatly valuing, biological diversity in and around the Chiricahua Mountains. Some of Portal’s many retirees have returned here after careers in biological research or astronomy (residents of Sky Village), and others have been attracted by the area’s biological riches, dark night skies, stunningly rugged and beautiful landscapes, and interactive and cooperative community spirit. Private properties, including a few ranches, are integrated into a matrix of State and Federal lands (Coronado National Forest and BLM), and some have easements administered by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Three USFS campgrounds (Idlewilde, Stuart, and Sunny Flat) serve the public, and a nationally recognized Zoological and Botanical area is accessed by a turnoff into South Fork Canyon near the entrance to Sunny Flat. GOALS OF THE PLAN The community of Portal, AZ, has committed to preparing for wildfires that are inevitable yet need not be disastrous to lives, properties and the environment on which our local ecotourism economy depends. By formulating an action plan, and by promoting regular and continuous attention to fuels reduction and structure safety, our community will become more resilient to wildfires in the wildland‐urban interface (WUI). Principles developed under the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have proven effective in enhancing community resiliency to wildfire, and this effectiveness drives us to seek official recognition and certification as a Firewise Community. Our goals are three‐fold: (1) to educate members of our community about Firewise principles and methods; (2) to motivate property owners to adopt Firewise principles, and (3) to enhance community resilience to wildfire through implementation of these principles. 2 FIREWISE COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES The Chairperson is Debb Johnson (tel. 520‐558‐3266; [email protected]). Other members are (alphabetically): Dinah Davidson, Lee Dyal, Bud Johnson, Jackie Lewis, Barbara Miller, David Newton, Eskild Petersen, Helen Snyder, and Bill Wilbur. COMMUNITY LOCATION Central Portal (the Post Office and Library) is located at 31°54'44.50"N, 109° 8'32.87"W (Figures 2 & 3). Three routes provide access to Portal, but just one is paved throughout its length. That route is Hidalgo County (NM) Rt. 533, extending west from State Rt. 80 about 50 miles north of the border town of Douglas, and becoming Portal Rd. at the junction with Stateline Rd. Portal is located just 7 miles northwest of this junction. A second access route extends south toward Portal from Interstate 10 near the town of San Simon. The northern section of this route, Noland Rd. (I‐10 signage says “Portal Rd.”) is paved. About 17 miles south of the freeway, near the mouth of Whitetail Canyon, the unpaved route bears left (east), becoming Foothill Rd., which intersects the paved Portal Rd. about one mile SE of Portal. A third and mostly unpaved route (Forest Service Road 42) crosses the Chiricahua Mountains southeast of Willcox, AZ, and is accessible mainly to vehicles capable of traversing rugged terrain. However, if safe from fire, it may be usable during emergencies. OWNERSHIP (WITHIN TARGETED AREA) Portal village includes about 3340 acres of private land with approximately 230 parcels and 127 residences (Figure 4). Boosting the number of structures considerably are the many out‐ buildings associated with homes ‐ commonly 2‐4 per home and including pump houses, storage structures, garages and car ports. With a seasonal influx of part‐time residents, the local population of about 120 approximately doubles to 240 during cooler months. USFS, BLM and State lands border private properties (Figures 3 & 4). TOPOGRAPHY Portal village is surrounded by rugged terrain, ranging in elevation from about 4100’ at the floor of the San Simon Valley east of town, to high mountains on the western and southern sides (6839’ at Cathedral Peak, 7976’ at Silver Peak, and 8544’ at Portal Peak). Over 3500’ of this relief occurs abruptly near the edges of Portal as cliffs rise steeply from Cave Creek (Figures 5 & 6). Both steep terrain and daily wind cycles (down‐canyon evening and up‐canyon morning winds) can potentially to contribute to severe fire behavior. 3 Cave Creek once ran dependably year‐round but is increasingly dry seasonally. The Cave Creek Canyon watershed, one of the longest drainages in the Chiricahuas, contributes importantly to community water wells. After Hurricane Odile, and influenced by large fires in the watershed, Cave Creek overflowed into the three campgrounds and through private properties and residences downstream. Many streamside Arizona cypress died after having their root systems exposed and battered by woody debris carried and deposited by the flood. VEGETATION Contributing to high biological diversity, and related to the substantial topographic diversity, Portal is surrounded by diverse native vegetation types. These plant communities include desert scrub, semi‐desert grasslands, oak‐grassland (or oak savanna), chaparral, oak woodland, and pine‐oak woodland. Unnaturally dense and continuous stands of Mesquite and Acacia have overtaken grasslands immediately surrounding Portal (explanation below). Within the communities mentioned, many local species are fire adapted; some, e.g., native bunch grasses and manzanita, possess traits that encourage burning. Manzanita is most dense near the base of canyon walls, and piles of dead or mostly dead Manzanita occur on two private properties immediately below USFS lands. Natural fire frequencies, likely in the range of 4‐8 years, have been eclipsed by decades of fire suppression and livestock overgrazing. Fuel accumulation over such lengthy time periods has left local plant communities overgrown with Mesquite and other shrubs and primed to burn. A shallowly rooted and especially flammable grass (introduced Lehmann’s Lovegrass) now lines roadsides immediately around Portal. In Cave Creek Canyon above Portal, Southwest Riparian Deciduous Forest is dominated by Arizona Sycamore, several Madrean oaks (Emory Oak, Arizona White Oak, and Silver Leaf Oak), Arizona Cypress, One‐seed and Alligator Juniper, Arizona Madrone, several pines (Border Pine and Apache Pine, and Ponderosa Pine at higher elevations), Arizona Walnut, Arizona Ash and Gooding’s Willow. Perhaps because of its very tall stature, requiring tall water columns in transport tissues to supply leaves, Emory Oak has been hit especially hard by increasing heat and drought. Downed trunks with their abundant branches represent a new and potentially important fire hazard on private and USFS lands in the lower Riparian Deciduous Forest. The Madrean oaks shed their leaves at the end of March, and dead leaves of both oaks and sycamore carpet the ground in these woodlands during spring fire season. CLIMATE Fire season typically extends from late winter through early summer. Beginning in late February or early March, Portal receives strong, drying winds from the ‘tails’ of frontal storms reaching this far south without the precipitation needed to boost fuel moistures significantly (Figure 7). Although winds can be strong in November‐December, they are normally 4 accompanied by precipitation during that season. Annual grasses begin to cure at the end of the monsoon, or if winter rains begin soon thereafter, when those rains cease. Lightning is rare during this season, but extreme fire weather in March through May has spread fires ignited by humans, including along remote trails by drug smugglers, at astonishing rates. The intensity of fire weather normally subsides in June and July, depending on the strength of the summer monsoon, but humidities remain low through mid‐June. A weak 2017 monsoon (at least locally around Portal) permitted a lightening strike to ignite a grassland fire in August, normally mid‐ monsoon season. Very concerning is a recent prediction that the southwestern monsoon will weaken as the climate changes (Figure 7). WILDLIFE Mammal species occurring regularly in our community include cougar, bobcat, black bear, Coues whitetail deer, collared peccary, coatimundi, raccoon, gray fox, striped, hooded, spotted, and hog‐nosed skunks, Chiricahua fox squirrels (a subspecies endemic to the Chiricahuas), woodrats, other cricetid, sciurid and heteromyid rodents, and 24 bat species, including the endangered lesser long‐nosed bat. Residents have repeatedly reported sightings of diurnally feeding jaguarundi, especially in years when diurnal sigmodontid rodents (cotton rats) reach outbreak densities; no photographic or other evidence is currently available. Recently, a male jaguar has been photographed in the Chiricahuas. Among other animals, herptiles are represented