South Uncompahgre fuels

“FlamMap modeling indicates there is currently little potential for active crown fire activity. This condition would be maintained by the Proposed Action.”

The agency wrote that in its own document, under Fire, Fuel, and Air Quality. Nobody has been out to check it.

In the treatment stands on the south Uncompahgre Plateau, photograph the thickest timber you can reach: dead limbs and small trees carrying up into the tree tops, and crowns touching. Photos showing a continuous run of dead limbs and small trees from the ground up into a closed, touching canopy would undercut the claim that a crown fire is unlikely there.

The agency has published no document here with a sentence a photograph could settle, only a notice. The line below is read from that notice.

On the Uncompahgre Plateau, walk into unburned pinyon-juniper and sagebrush and photograph the biggest, gnarliest old pinyons and junipers with a pack or person beside the trunk for scale, plus standing dead snags and how closed the canopy is overhead.

The agency has published no document here with a sentence a photograph could settle, only a notice. The line below is read from that notice.

Walk a stand of big timber on the Uncompahgre Plateau and photograph the largest trees with a pack or person beside them for scale, plus standing dead snags and the closed canopy overhead. Note old pinyon and juniper too.