Colorado unit 18

[joeacerra]

Does any know if 18 is completely destroyed by fire from 2020 fires or still some timber left?

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[cnelk]

Pretty self explanatory

There’s probably some pockets of unburned timber, but I bet everyone will be pounding on them

 

[longtail]

I heard this unit is open now, can someone confirm? The hunting atlas still shows it closed?

 

[Bear Wrestler]

Almost all of the roads are still closed completely but it is now open to hiking. You can check the Routt and Arapahoe National Forest sites to confirm. I drove 125 last week and the entire corridor is burnt to a crisp. Almost the entire unit is scorched.

 

[cnelk]

As of July 9 on the Arapahoe Roosevelt NF website

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd867991.pdf

 

[ArcherAdam]

So does everyone think this burn will be good for all the old beetle kill? I have not been through all of 18 however I understand that a lot of it was almost unpenetrable.

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[spike camp]

So does everyone think this burn will be good for all the old beetle kill? I have not been through all of 18 however I understand that a lot of it was almost unpenetrable.

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A lot of folks think these burns are beneficial, and in a way they are..but most of these burns are super hot and the burn area will remain a moonscape for decades.

 

[BBob]

A lot of folks think these burns are beneficial, and in a way they are..but most of these burns are super hot and the burn area will remain a moonscape for decades.

I can't say what will happen there but we were told the same thing with some of our earlier super hot burns. Proclamations were made that the soil is now sterile and nothing would grow for a very long time. They were wrong. Things did grow and grew well and it didn't take decades. Some plants that were virtually gone before the fires were just dormant and the fires actually brought them back. Some of our older hot burns had recovered into a more natural mosaic and have since burned again. Burns in areas that created tons of annoying dead fall have burned again burning out piles of dead fall and when that recovers we won't have that dead fall to deal with or at least much less of it. Cycle repeats and I suspect they will recover again for the better over time. In my un-proffessional view the mosaic looks to be much more natural and sustainable than the old mono-culture we had everywhere before.

 

[KHNC]

Elk will avoid this unit like the plague for quite a few years. Most hunters should do the same.

 

[Coveyleader]

A lot of folks think these burns are beneficial, and in a way they are..but most of these burns are super hot and the burn area will remain a moonscape for decades.

Read this again! A Lot of people are going to show up to that mess, and throw the towel in. That area along 125 is toast! Have you guys ever been in a burn area like that? When the wind picks up, you will think you're in the Sahara, but instead of sand, it will be ash. Do those beetle killed forests need to be burnt off? Sure, sadly, the areas get torched so bad nothing survives, and it takes forever to rejuvenate.


One of my "go to" areas was nuked this past year. I went in this spring, forget it. I might as well post the coordinates because in our lifetimes, it won't be worth a shit.

 

[Coveyleader]

So does everyone think this burn will be good for all the old beetle kill? I have not been through all of 18 however I understand that a lot of it was almost unpenetrable.

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I spent all spring in some of the burns. If it was torched, there is no ground cover left at all. None, you can just about ride a bike across it. In areas that were burned, but not torched, the downed beetle kill didn't burn off.

There are maps online showing severity of the burns, and I've found them to be pretty accurate (real accurate).

After walking through countless miles of that stuff, if the trees didn't burn off but the ground cover did, animals will be there. If it all burnt, they will be passing through from areas that still had cover. The only green in those nuked areas is where old roads were, and stream beds and some of the aspen and spruce along the wet cricks etc. Most of the sign I saw was from moose. Elk, Deer, were very limited. When you walk though those areas, there is no sound. The squirrels, chipmunks, etc were burned to oblivion. You will hardly see a bird. It really is like the moon in there.

 

[spike camp]

I can't say what will happen there but we were told the same thing with some of our earlier super hot burns. Proclamations were made that the soil is now sterile and nothing would grow for a very long time. They were wrong. Things did grow and grew well and it didn't take decades. Some plants that were virtually gone before the fires were just dormant and the fires actually brought them back. Some of our older hot burns had recovered into a more natural mosaic and have since burned again. Burns in areas that created tons of annoying dead fall have burned again burning out piles of dead fall and when that recovers we won't have that dead fall to deal with or at least much less of it. Cycle repeats and I suspect they will recover again for the better over time. In my un-proffessional view the mosaic looks to be much more natural and sustainable than the old mono-culture we had everywhere before.

While certainly possible, every single burn I’ve been to, looks similar to when it burned.

I live in the mountains, and there was a burn near my house in 2012.

Aside from thistle and some wildflowers, the place is mostly still barren and this wasn’t a ‘hot’ fire, either.

Burns can be magnets for elk, but my guess is a small fraction of burn areas, actually are that way.

 

[Coveyleader]

Here is what you will encounter. Nothing is coming back into this for a very long time.

 

[cnelk]

I took this video in March

 

[Coveyleader]

And you're down in the valley. The tops will be cooked.

 

[Northpark]

I personally would not risk going into that fire or Cameron peak fire. The trees have been dead for 20 years and then they burned. I worked there for 5 years and we all had our close calls with trees coming down around us. The fire weakened trees will be coming down at a fast rate and I wouldn’t want to take that chance of being in there when the wind starts blowing.

 

[ColoradoV]

If you know how to work it I agree w the cpw assessment that there will be a bunch of elk in and around that burn in 18. Elk seem to love the moonscape edges and if Mother Nature has taught us anything it is she recovers fast and it will only get better and better around that burn for the next 10 years. The guys who learn where the elk are will do real well IMO.

Good luck!

 

[les welch]

I disagree. The area is greening up fast. Lots of elk around right now.


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[cnelk]

Posting on a forum that an area is burnt to a crisp and not huntable could be a a tactic to keep others out….

Ya just never know.

 

[tdhanses]

My property was burned in 2017, it’s coming back quite nice and looked like a moonscape the year after, never really know how it will recover.