Devastating Fires in NW Nebraska (Pine Ridge)

[WyoHunter]

Three separate forest fires in the Pine Ridge area of NW Nebraska have burned approximately 90,000 acres. A lot of turkey and deer habitat has been lost to these fires. To see the areas the have been affected by the fires go to inciweb.org and select Nebraska in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The fires are called the Region 23 Complex fire. Once selected a map showing the location of the fires will be displayed. I've hunted this area for 25 years and it saddens me to see one of my favorite turkey areas laid waste by these fires.  

[redarrow]

This has been the worst year I can remember for wildfires. Seems like half the U.S. is burning.I prat for those folks that have lost everything. I lost a cabin in n. Mich. a few years ago. Financially I didn't loose much,but others lost everything. I miss the old place.Lots of good memories.

[tomstopper]

I agree with redarrow. I dont ever remember hearing about this many wildfires in the past. I will pray for the families directly affected by all of this. God Bless. I hope next summer its not like this agian.

[Wingbone]

I too am devasted by this. I completed my slam on the Pine Ridge, and loved hunting that area. It was really beautiful, though over half of it was barren due to the big fire they had there 6 years ago. Now these fires seem to be taking care of what trees were left. I made a good friend there, and talked to him a couple days ago. He said that the fires are dancing all around his place on the ridge, but said he won't feel safe till they get their first snow, which is a ways off. I pray that these fires are put out quickly.

[hootn]

the west ash fire burnt from west ash road all the way to 385 south of chadron and north towards hwy 20 that runs between charon and crawford and crossed hwy 20 in on spot. the state park had to close and evactued it burnt alot around that part. i talked to the land owner who let us thru his land to get to the national forest and he said it burnt all the way to his land, he said he might have 4 or 5 trees left on the property line that didnt burn.
i am planning on heading to yellowstone in a week or so and planning on running by there to look and see how it is where we hunted. will let yall know and post some pictures.

scott

[deerhunt1988]

I can't believe I am just hearing about this... Made it to the Pine Ridge for the first time this past spring, and I immediately fell in love with that place.. My father and I had already been planning return trips... Beautiful area and country, such a shame to see it decimated like this..

[hootn]

for those who have hunted this area or know it. the west ash fire was west of hwy 385 south of chadron.  if i read it right it started somewhere around the pondorosa wild life management area and burnt to the east and to north.

scott

[WiLL B]

the west ash fire burnt from west ash road all the way to 385 south of chadron and north towards hwy 20 that runs between charon and crawford and crossed hwy 20 in on spot. the state park had to close and evactued it burnt alot around that part. i talked to the land owner who let us thru his land to get to the national forest and he said it burnt all the way to his land, he said he might have 4 or 5 trees left on the property line that didnt burn.
i am planning on heading to yellowstone in a week or so and planning on running by there to look and see how it is where we hunted. will let yall know and post some pictures.

scott

Please do.

[Doug]

I feel for you losing your hunting grounds.  I, too, lost my prime elk hunting area this year to the 140,000+ acre Trinity Ridge fire.  Hopefully we get some rain soon or an early snow to put some of these fires out.  They battled for about 10 days to save the small town of Featherville.

[boomer]

I'll be heading out there in the middle of October to hunt antelope. So it will be interesting in what it will look like out there.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Hooksfan]

I sure hate to hear about that.  It sounds like the exact area I hunted a few years back and killed my first Merriams.
I camped just outside of the State Park at the Red Cloud Campsite.  The only road I remember traveling to get to where I was hunting was the Table Road.  One of the areas I hunted was right along the edge of the fire that had gone through four years ago.
Beautiful place and I, like others have mentioned, fell in love with the area.
My heart goes out to the folks in the area.
It sure seems like these wildfires are taking a pretty high toll.  The summer 2011 fire in the Raton, New Mexico area took out another one of my favorite places and some awesome Merriams habitat in the Sugarite Canyon State Park area.

[pseshooter300]

Will that area around chadron even be able to be hunted come spring?

[Wingbone]

From the looks of the burn locations from this fire added to the areas burned in 2006, there will be very, very little timber to hunt in the National Forest. If they do allow hunting there next year, it will have hunters concentrated into about 2,000 acres. The area we hunted this year was on the edge of the 2006 burn, and it hadn't even begun to recover as far as tree regrowth. May be good for elk and deer but bad for the turkeys.

I still can't believe this happened just two months after being there.

[hootn]

in 2010 i found a area that wasnt burnt in 06 on the east side of 385, good looking woods but didnt see many turkey or hear any gobbling. however i did see a bunch of track around that area.

scott

[hootn]

went thru monday and looked my little honey hole is all burnt and dead. the other area had sections of dead and live trees, if they all lived it still might be some good hunting there, but time will tell. but sections from the state ark north towards chadron to the west of 385 looks like the east of 385 when it burnt in 06. the area  to the east has most of the trees down. looks almost like prairie land,

scott