As I described in my previous post, Burning Cattails, cattails were subjected to a controlled burn at Tres Rios Wetlands in Phoenix last Saturday. I returned there three days later to take a look at the aftermath of the fire.
The photo above shows the gazebo that is in the center of the cattail basin and so was at the center of the fire. The fireman cleared that area of cattails before the burn and kept the gazebo from damage during the burn. When the fire was extinguished, the basin was flooded as shown in the photos below.
Ron Elkins, Phoenix Water Services Department Operations and Maintenance Supervisor with responsibility for Tres Rios explained, “The burn was to deter growth by damaging existing foliage with the heat and then drowning the shoots before they can go into winter dormancy. This effects the growth cycle of the spring rush when the plant uses it’s reserves to push up new stalks. Hopefully when spring comes around the plant densities will be slightly less than current conditions.”
Last Saturday the terrific folks at Tres Rios Wetlands in Phoenix teamed up with other terrific folks from the Phoenix Fire Department to do a controlled burn of cattails. Cattails make a valuable contribution to a wetlands, providing habitat for wildlife and purifying water. However, their value diminishes when they become so thick that they choke the area that they inhabit, as in the photo below.
Along with a few other observers, I watched from the southern edge of the 3.2 acre pond shown above as the fireman ignited the northern edge and the fire moved toward us. The three photos below show the fire’s advance.
We onlookers had to change our position as the fire approached, but not out of danger from the flames; knowledgeable onlookers remarked several times that the fire was “well behaved.” It was smoke that drove us to new positions.
The fireman managed to burn the cattails while protecting a gazebo that they surround at the center of the pond and a bridge that crosses the pond at its western side.
I will make another visit to Tres Rios soon to see how the pond and cattails look after the burn. Stay tuned!
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See two previous posts about Tres Rios Wetlands: Bobcats At Tres Rios and Wandering Tres Rios.
(Thanks to Ron Elkins, Operations & Maintenance Supervisor at Tres Rios, for the invitation to watch and for lots of other things as well, and to Phoenix Fire Department Battalion Chief Walt Loerzel for sharing his wisdom about fire.)
During both of two visits to Tres Rios Wetlands in Phoenix I ran into Jeff Ritz wandering the area with his camera, ever alert for wildlife. In our second meeting he showed me a photo of one of Tres Rios’ bobcats and agreed to let me publish these three photos.
When he granted permission to publish the photos, Jeff told me, “I really love that place and it is such a shame that so few people have heard of it.”
The photo below is the one Jeff showed me when we met. A bobcat with dinner!
The bobcats are the darlings of Tres Rios, but the wetlands is home to other “wild things” as well. Be sure to look at Jeff’s Tres Rios photostream HERE. I particularly like his photos of dragonflies HERE.
Find more about bobcats HERE. Also see my previous post about Tres Rios HERE.
Thanks Jeff!
(Photos in this post are copyright Jeff Ritz, all rights reserved, and are used here with his permission. Please don’t use them elsewhere without his permission.)
The 2010 Calendar from River Network–WATER: Endangered Resource–is now available.
Enjoy 12 months of stunning photographs by Gary Braasch, winner of the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography. Proceeds benefit River Network. Buy it HERE
The Tres Rios Wetlands is a beautiful and serene oasis tucked behind a waste water treatment plant east of 91st Avenue and just north of the Salt River bed in Phoenix.
But make no mistake about Tres Rios; it is not just a pretty face. It is also a serious experiment to understand how wetlands can improve water quality and provide a rich wildlife habitat. While I was there I met birders who were excited about red-tailed hawks, spoke with a photographer who was looking for a bobcat, and saw trees recently felled by a beaver.
Aquatic plants that produce oxygen while assimilating dissolved solids and carbon monoxide coat the pond in the photo below, giving it its own kind of beauty. And, yes, that small speck in the left center of the photo is a duck.
Tres Rios has pedestrian trails, a ramada and picnic area, a riparian trail, and a butterfly garden (pictured below).
For more information about Tres Rios, visit the website HERE. Also, see a Phoenix Magazine story about Tres Rios HERE.
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