Murphy Complex Fire | |
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Location | Idaho and Nevada, United States |
Statistics | |
Date(s) | July 16, 2007 – August 2007 |
Burned area | 652,016 acres (263,862 ha) |
The Murphy Complex Fire was a 2007 wildfire that included acreage upon the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Bruneau and Jarbidge Field Offices of Idaho, BLM Elko Field Office of Nevada, and Forest Service Mountain City and Jarbidge Districts of Nevada. It burned an estimated 652,016 acres (263,862 ha ) of land. [1] By acreage, it was the third largest wildfire in the United States between 1997 and 2009. [1] The fire affected Owyhee and Twin Falls counties in Idaho, and Elko County, Nevada. Nearly three times as much acreage burned in the two Idaho counties as burned in Nevada. [2] Aerial crews were primarily responsible for fighting the fire in Castleford, Idaho. [3] About 560 wildfire firefighters were involved including a Type 1 team that specializes in fighting large wildfires. [4] This was the third large fire in as many years on land managed by the Jarbidge Field Office in Idaho's Twin Falls District. Because of this, the BLM held a workshop on large wildfires in the district on May 12–14, 2009. [5]
A wildfire or wildland fire is a fire in an area of combustible vegetation occurring in rural areas. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire can also be classified more specifically as a brush fire, bushfire, desert fire, forest fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers more than 247.3 million acres (1,001,000 km2) of public lands in the United States which constitutes one eighth of the landmass of the country. President Harry S. Truman created the BLM in 1946 by combining two existing agencies: the General Land Office and the Grazing Service. The agency manages the federal government's nearly 700 million acres (2,800,000 km2) of subsurface mineral estate located beneath federal, state and private lands severed from their surface rights by the Homestead Act of 1862. Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Idaho is a state in the northwestern region of the United States. It borders the state of Montana to the east and northeast, Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington and Oregon to the west. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canadian border with the province of British Columbia. With a population of approximately 1.7 million and an area of 83,569 square miles (216,440 km2), Idaho is the 14th largest, the 12th least populous and the 7th least densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. The state's capital and largest city is Boise.
The fire was a combination of six wildfires caused by lightning in south-central Idaho and north-central Nevada that started on July 16–17, 2007. The four largest fires were called the Rowland, Elk Mountain, Smith Crossing and Buck Flat fires. They merged over the weekend of July 21, 2007, and the wildfire was renamed the Murphy Complex Fire. [2] [6] It spread quickly due to the hot and dry conditions and threatened or damaged a wide variety of natural resources, plants, animals, people and property. By the time it was contained on August 2, 2007 an estimated 483,000 acres (195,463 ha) in Idaho and 170,000 acres (68,797 ha) in Nevada had burned. It was the largest Idaho wildfire since 1910. [7] Afterward, the BLM undertook a large scale reclamation effort, which included fencing, seedling planting, shrub planting, drill seeding, aerial seeding, cultural inventory, weed treatment and monitoring. Monitoring is planned for 425,815 acres (172,321 ha). Total reclamation costs are estimated at over $11 million during fiscal years 2007–2010, with full recovery of the natural systems taking several additional years. [2] [7]
Elko County is a county in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 census, the population was 48,818. Its county seat is Elko. The county was established on March 5, 1869, from Lander County.
The Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest (HTNF) is the principal U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Nevada, and has a smaller portion in Eastern California. With an area of 6,289,821 acres (25,454.00 km2), it is the largest National Forest of the United States outside Alaska.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area is a U.S. National Recreation Area located in southeastern Nevada and northwestern Arizona. Operated by the National Park Service, Lake Mead NRA follows the Colorado River corridor from the westernmost boundary of Grand Canyon National Park to just north of the cities of Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona. It includes all of the eponymous Lake Mead as well as the smaller Lake Mohave – reservoirs on the river created by Hoover Dam and Davis Dam, respectively – and the surrounding desert terrain and wilderness.
The Jarbidge Wilderness is a wilderness area located in the Jarbidge Mountains of northern Elko County in northeastern Nevada, United States. It is contained within the Jarbidge Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.
Bitterroot National Forest comprises 1.587 million acres (6,423 km²) in west-central Montana and eastern Idaho, of the United States. It is located primarily in Ravalli County, Montana, but also has acreage in Idaho County, Idaho (29.24%), and Missoula County, Montana (0.49%).
The Jarbidge River is a 51.8-mile-long (83.4 km), high elevation river in northern Nevada and southwest Idaho in the United States. The Jarbidge originates as two main forks in the Jarbidge Mountains of northeastern Nevada and then flows through basalt and rhyolite canyons on the high plateau of the Owyhee Desert before joining the Bruneau River.
In 1989 the U.S. Government enacted the Nevada Wilderness Bill, expanding the one existing Wilderness Area (Jarbidge) and creating thirteen new areas. The estimated total of 733,400 acres (296,800 ha) was over eleven times the area that had previously been under wilderness protection.
Bright Star Wilderness is a 8,190-acre (3,314 ha) wilderness area in Kern County in the U.S. state of California.
The Bruneau – Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness is located on the high basalt plateaus of Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho in the western United States. The wilderness area is named after and protects much of the Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers and their canyons. Whitewater rafting is a popular recreational activity in this wilderness area, which has rivers up to Class V. About 40 miles (64 km) of the Bruneau River and about 28.8 miles (46.3 km) of the Jarbidge River are classified as a wild river.
The Owyhee River Wilderness is located on the high basalt plateaus of Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho in the western United States. The wilderness area is named after and protects the upper Owyhee River, its tributaries, and the surrounding desert canyon landscape. Whitewater rafting is a popular recreational activity in this wilderness area. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, it is the second-largest U.S. Wilderness Area that is not located within a National Forest, National Park, or National Wildlife Refuge. The BLM's Black Rock Desert Wilderness, located within Black Rock Desert – High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, is larger. About 67.3 miles (108.3 km) of the Owyhee River is classified as a wild river.
The Pole Creek Wilderness is located on the high rhyolite and basalt plateaus of Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho in the western United States. Its whitewater rapids are a popular attraction.
The North Fork Owyhee Wilderness is on the high basalt plateaus of Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho in the western United States. The rivers within it offer whitewater rapids up to Class IV. The upper 20.8 miles (33.5 km) of the North Fork Owyhee River, from the Idaho–Oregon border to the upstream boundary of the wilderness, are part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Of this total, 15.1 miles (24.3 km) are classified as wild and the remaining 5.7 miles (9.2 km) are classified "recreational".
The Big Jacks Creek Wilderness is located on the high basalt plateaus of Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho in the western United States. Little Jacks Creek Wilderness is on its northwest border. About 35 miles (56 km) of Big Jacks Creek is classified as a wild river.
Sheep Creek is a 63-mile (101 km) long tributary of the Bruneau River. Beginning at an elevation of 6,126 feet (1,867 m) east of Owyhee in northern Elko County, Nevada, it flows generally north into Owyhee County, Idaho and the Owyhee Desert, where it is roughly paralleled by Idaho State Highway 51. It then flows to its mouth in the Bruneau – Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness, at an elevation of 3,415 feet (1,041 m). In 2009, 25.6 miles (41.2 km) of the creek were designated as wild by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which also created the Bruneau – Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness.
The Rush Fire was the largest wildfire of the 2012 California wildfire season. The fire, which started in Lassen County, California, eventually spread into Washoe County, Nevada. The fire consumed a total of 315,577 acres of sagebrush, of which 271,991 acres were in California. At the time, the burn area in California made the Rush Fire the second-largest wildfire in California since 1932. In December 2017, the Thomas Fire surpassed the Rush Fire to become the second-largest wildfire in modern California history, in terms of the area burned in California. In mid-August 2018, the Ranch Fire in the Mendocino Complex Fire surpassed the total acreage of the Rush Fire in both California and Nevada.
The Lava Fire was a wildfire that burned over 21,500 acres (87 km2) of Oregon rangeland during the summer of 2012. The fire began on 23 July 2012, the result of a lightning strike. The fire consumed rangeland vegetation and scrub forest located in and around lava beds in northern Lake County. The burned area was on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management including a large area within a wilderness study area. Firefighters battled the blaze for over three weeks. At the peak of the firefighting effort, there were over 275 personnel working on the fire.
The 2017 Montana wildfires were a series of wildfires that burned over the course of 2017.
The Thomas Fire was a massive wildfire that affected Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, and one of multiple wildfires that ignited in southern California in December 2017. It burned approximately 281,893 acres before being fully contained on January 12, 2018, making it the largest wildfire in modern California history at the time, being surpassed by the Ranch Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex, less than a year later in August 2018. The Thomas Fire destroyed at least 1,063 structures, while damaging 280 others; and the fire caused over $2.2 billion in damages, including $230 million in suppression costs, becoming the seventh-most destructive wildfire in state history. As of August 2018, the Thomas Fire is California's eighth-most destructive wildfire. Ventura's agriculture industry suffered at least $171 million dollars in losses due to the Thomas Fire.
The 2018 wildfire season in Nevada began in June 2018 and ended November 2018.