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Mt. Graham road reopens on Monday

The paved road that snakes up Mount Graham will reopen Monday morning, 24 days after wildfires shut public access to Southern Arizona's tallest mountain range. Developed campgrounds along Arizona 366, also known as the Swift Trail, will be open and offer desert dwellers a cool retreat in the pines. But all trails and dirt roads leading to the fire, plus the burned area itself, will remain off-limits. As the Southwest's wildfire season fades with the arrival of the monsoon, Forest Service officials are now shifting their focus to preventing flooding and soil erosion on steep slopes charred by the 29,400-acre Nuttall Complex Fire. "Overall, I'd say it's been a moderate impact . . . we don't expect a real disaster sort of thing," said Henry Shovic, a Forest Service soil scientist heading the 20-person recovery team. "There are a lot of people concerned the mountain is gone forever, but it really isn't." Less than 20 percent of the Nuttall Complex burned severely, he said, and runoff should be far less than in the Santa Catalinas after the 2003 Aspen Fire, in which 40 percent of the 84,750 acres burned severely. Still, the Forest Service is urging the public to be careful in the Pinaleño Mountains, 75 miles northeast of Tucson, because the fire is still smoldering, and weakened trees could come crashing down. "Highway 366 is a challenging road in the best of conditions," said Bill Lewis, acting district ranger for the Coronado National Forest's Safford Ranger District. "Now there will also be the risk of flash floods, rolling debris and falling trees." By Friday, there were still 413 people assigned to the fire, which has so far cost $9.8 million to suppress. Helicopters and crews continue to patrol 60 miles of containment lines, dousing hot spots and also restoring fuel breaks blazed by hand and bulldozers. The fire was 80 percent contained - meaning four-fifths of its perimeter wasn't at risk of expanding - and full containment was expected by Sunday. The Nuttall Complex consists of two fires sparked by lightning in late June that were managed jointly. Fire officials had expected the blazes to merge on the north side of the Pinaleños, but only a part of the Ash Creek drainage that separates them has burned. The fire was poised to overrun the University of Arizona's $200 million telescope complex and destroy dozens of cabins in the Turkey Flat and Columbine areas. But just two buildings were damaged at the communications complex atop 10,022-foot Heliograph Peak. The main threats now to natural and man-made resources are flooding and erosion, which can increase exponentially if flames destroy trees, shrubs and grasses that deflect raindrops, secure the soil and slow down runoff. Intense heat can kill microorganisms that stabilize the earth, while pores in the soil can get clogged by resins. Using satellite and aerial imagery, plus on-the-ground inspections, scientists are now mapping which areas burned hottest. Once the burn severity map is done, probably this weekend, the recovery team will begin plotting treatments. It's likely that the most severely charred hillsides will be showered with grass seeds from the air, while drainages and culverts will be cleared so debris doesn't create artificial dams that could fail. Officials with the Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation, or BAER, team say some parts of the Swift Trail might be damaged by runoff and flooding may threaten the city of Safford's tiny Fry Mesa Reservoir. "Some trails have been buried already and they will continue to be buried," said BAER team leader Shovic, who worked on recovery after the Aspen Fire, the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire in Los Alamos, N.M., and the 1988 wildfires in Yellowstone National Park. The Aspen Fire's BAER team generated $2.23 million in recovery work meant to protect Summerhaven, Catalina Highway, recreation areas and downstream homes. The Nuttall Complex's recovery should cost less than $200,000 because fewer resources are at risk, Shovic said. Gov. Janet Napolitano on Friday declared a state of emergency in Graham and Gila counties, freeing up $200,000 to tackle post-fire flooding around the Nuttall Complex and the 119,500-acre Willow Fire, southwest of Payson. Wildfires continue to break out in the Southwest, with 63 new starts - all due to lightning - reported Thursday in Arizona and New Mexico, according to the government's Southwest Coordination Center in Albuquerque. But none of those blazes escaped firefighters' initial attack.