“but if the idiots of the FS will just leave it alone, it will return to former grandeur soon enough”...
Mogollon has been evacuated and the buildings wrapped in ‘foil’. As far as the wilderness is concerned, I would tend to agree with you if it were not the whole dang forest going up in flames at once.
This ‘Wilderness’ was the first designated in the country. It is/was the largest in the lower 48. The Gila watershed feeds thru Pheonix into the Colorado to feed LA.
This fire IS catistrophic.
What better way to ensure that water makes it down to Phoenix avoiding the New Mexico-Arizona water settlements act than to make sure all rain water in the Gila Basin runs off to Arizona er... Phoenix.
Already have an influx of wildlife escaping through the river valley...
Screw the ‘wildlife corridors’... between Arizona’s Wallow Fire last year and what this fire in NM is working out to be there will not be a ‘corridor’ for wildlife, let alone HUMANS, to travel thru... Oh, I forgot to look at the bigger picture... Once humans are gone this area will once again be pristine since we’ll all be living in the cities.