“We worked our way around five fires and I got home and thought, ‘We’ve got to organize our neighborhood!”
Dry, warm, windy conditions make this month prime time for Northern Arizona wildfires. As cities and forests call for fire restrictions and wildland firefighters are on high alert, Flagstaff Equine Emergency Response Network (FEERN) offers a Facebook-based communications hub for horse owners who might need help and volunteers who are able to help and temporarily house horses in the event of an emergency in Flagstaff and surrounding communities.
Flagstaff accountant Kathy Oliver, CPA, founder of Sacred Peaks Equine Sanctuary, set up the network four years ago. “There was a fire out near Copeland [in Timberline]. That’s what instigated it,” she said.
FEERN identified four sections of town for large animal evacuation. Oliver, who currently has 20 horses at her nonprofit horse rescue property, four dogs, donkeys and chickens, evacuated her animals during the July 2019 Museum Fire. “I did it out of extreme caution. I didn’t want to worry and had so many animals. It was a good drill. Each of my friends took a couple of horses.”
Neighboring communities to the west and south of Flagstaff have the Equine Emergency Evacuation of Yavapai County (EEE). Founder Carol Fontana started the volunteer organization after riding the Arizona Trail with her Arabian champion horse, Tiki, from Mexico to Utah in 2016. “We worked our way around five fires and I got home and thought, ‘We’ve got to organize our neighborhood!’”
Stressed Forests
The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) considers most of the state to be in what it calls “Extreme Drought” and “Exceptional Drought,” the highest categories on the scale, especially across Northern Arizona and the southeastern part of the state.
Forest Service officials say the dry conditions have resulted in stressed trees and an elevated risk of fire. “With as little snowpack and precipitation we received this past winter, we are currently in very high fire danger and seeing very dry forest conditions,” said Coconino National Forest Public Affairs Officer Brady Smith.
Hardy species like manzanita are starting to die off, and bark beetles, which devastated the West in the early 2000s, have made a reappearance.
“We have complex fuel conditions to deal with,” said Coconino and Kaibab National Forests Fire Management Officer Brian Steinhardt. “We are well deficit in our moisture, which leads to stress on our plants. Weakened trees are unable to make sap to push the bugs out. We are now seeing the effects of bark beetle attacks and dying juniper trees from Chino Valley to Ash Creek. That changes the fuel conditions from a fire perspective. The grasses have filled in between trees and we have continuous fuel from one dead juniper stem to another. The orange needles become volatile, almost like gasoline.”
Aware of the Risk
The EEE website emphasizes the risk of wildfire by noting large fires in recent years. It reminds residents about the 2019 Sheridan and Cellar fires, which came close to developed areas. “We’ve been very, very lucky,” said Fontana, who emphasizes that luck is not a good strategy. “There were huge fires in every county except for ours [Yavapai County] last year. They are going to happen.”
The organization started with a Facebook page calling for volunteers during the June 2017 Goodwin Fire near Dewey. “That became a very dangerous situation. We had several rigs go to one address and got stuck. If the fire came through, we would have been cooked,” she said.
Fire Ready
Equestrian Elise Wilson of Flagstaff grew up in Malibu Canyon, California, an area prone to wildfires. She says it’s critical that horse owners have access to a truck and trailer. “If they don’t own their own, they need to have someone lined up who can help them if they need to get their horse out. And it’s really important that their horses will load, that they are trained to trailer.”
She notes that some owners have let their horses loose as a last resort in the case of an approaching fire. “If you do, somehow attach your name and phone number. Some people paint their phone number on the horse. I’ve seen Velcro ID bracelets on the animal’s leg and contact information on halters.”
Wilson also recommends having an emergency to-go bag for the horse, like you would for yourself during fire season. “Have water buckets ready to go, food, medications, whatever the animal is going to need in the short term.” FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, FBN
FEERN can be reached at 928-853-4203. EEE’s hotline is 833-922-9333. Both organizations can be found on Facebook.
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