Prescott National Forest, along with the City of Prescott Fire Department, Yavapai County, University of Arizona Yavapai County Cooperative Extension and Prescott Area Wildland Urban Interface Commission (PAWUIC) are sponsoring “Prescott 2007 Wildfire Expo” on Saturday, April 14 from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. at the Prescott Courthouse Square.

Calling all hikers, trail riders and mountain bikers! Are you looking for a fun event to celebrate National Trails Day, enjoy the great outdoors, raise money for local trails, and maybe even win a prize? Sign up now for the Second Annual Trail Rally FUNd-Raiser on Saturday, April 28, 2007, at Pioneer Park in Prescott.

Teams are composed of a hiker, mountain biker and a horse and rider who will navigate separate loops of the Brownlow trail system and pick up playing cards along the way. The three highest scoring teams win cash prizes. This is not a timed event, so it's fun for everyone!

If you've formed a hiker, biker, and horse and rider team already, great! But don’t worry if you don’t have a complete team. We'll take your name (and form of locomotion) and match you up with others seeking teammates.

Registration fee is $15 per person, $45 per team. Deadline for registering is April 21; limit 25 teams. Half of the fee is for payout, and half is for trail projects in the Prescott area.

To register, visit www.yavapaitrailsassociation.org and click on the word “Rally” under the National Trails Day logo to access a printable registration form, or call Joyce at (928) 778-4985 or contact Susan at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Here's a great summer job – so great, in fact, that people are willing to work it for free. The Arizona Game and Fish Department needs a volunteer to serve as host at the Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery April 1 - Oct. 31. The hatchery is located up in the cool pines on Tonto Creek about 20 miles east of Payson on Highway 260.

Hosts are on duty from 7am - 4pm on weekends and holidays, and on weekdays when there are large groups of visitors. The hatchery host interacts with visitors and assists staff with hatchery duties and maintenance, including picking up litter, cleaning visitor restrooms, providing change for those fun trout feed machines, and other duties as needed.  

Interested candidates should have good communication and interpersonal skills, enjoy talking with different types of people, be able to provide excellent customer service, and accept and follow supervision and instruction from hatchery employees. Apparently, you don't have to know squat about fish, fishing or Arizona wildlife to apply, but AZG&F says it would be “a plus.”

On the negative side, you won't get paid; on the positive side, you'll be close to good summer fishing when you're not playing host, and you'll know exactly when and where those hatchery trucks are dropping off their loads. The AZG&F announcement didn't indicate whether the host lives rent-free at the hatchery or if it's BYOB – Bring Your Own Boudoir. It also didn't say whether you get one of those cool uniforms with the quail on the patch. For answers to those important questions, contact Sandy Reith at (602) 789-3680 or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Sixty-seven pronghorn antelope have left the area. The Arizona Game & Fish Department recently captured the animals near Prescott and relocated them near Winslow.

A helicopter herds a herd of pronghorn into the enclosure during the Granite Dells Ranch capture Feb. 7, 2007. Courtesy photo/George Andrejko, AZG&F

To save them.

Prescott National Forest fire officials plan to continue with their fuels reduction program. All this snow and rain we're getting is leaving behind enough moisture to safely allow them to continue burning slash piles in the Prescott Basin and near Crown King through at least Friday, Feb. 16. You can expect to see small, scattered smoke columns from burning slash piles as long as the favorable weather holds.

Officials said they didn't plan any road closures or traffic delays from the burning.

PNF gets more turkeys than the courthouse steps at election time

“We gotta get these birds released before the storm comes,” Don Buckley said, scanning the clear blue dawn reflected in his mirrored sunglasses. “They'll need the time to get back together, figure out their new home and find roosting trees.”

A capture net rockets over a flock of White Mountains turkeys destined for the PNF. Courtesy photo/AZG&F

Bob Matthews, who has been professionally tracking animals and people for 30 years, is hosting a workshop to pass on to you the basics of his skill. Bob's own teachers include the Bedouin Hugaret, with whom the Israeli Army patrols the hottest borders in the world. After patrolling the desert there, Bob brought his skills to Arizona, where he's assisted law enforcement, helped rescue and relocate wildlife and taught students from school age to seniors.

The Introduction to Tracking Workshop is May 4, 8am-5:30pm and includes instruction in why tracking works, rudimentary skill areas, terrain and geography issues, cultural issues and exercises. Costs is $130 per person, or $200 for two booking at the same time. 25% of fee due at sign-up. Class limited to 20 students (not recommended for children under age 13) and includes lunch, snacks and a goody bag. Workshop location given at sign-up.

For more information call Horizon Tracking Service at 928-308-6548, email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or visit www.horizontrackingservice.com.

Effective February 28, 2007, the  price of National Forest/Grassland Visitor Maps will increase to $9.00 for paper and $10.00 for plastic maps. Currently, these maps are sold for $6.00 (paper) and $7.00 (plastic).  The last time National Forest/Grassland  Visitor map prices were raised was in May 2000.

The Forest Service is required by law to recover costs associated with making maps available to the public. Our map sales program is self-sustaining and full cost recovery is necessary in order to remain  viable. The new prices reflect an increase in the cost of map preparation, lithographic printing, and distribution to the public.

Costs have been steadily increasing since May 2000. The Forest Service is no longer recovering costs associated with making maps available to the public. An analysis of these costs revealed that these new prices are necessary for full cost recovery.

Wilderness maps, wild and scenic river maps, and other special area maps will also increase in price to reflect rising costs of preparation, production, and distribution.

Forest Visitor maps are available at these locations:

·     Prescott National Forest District Offices
·     National forest and grassland offices
·     Interpretive Associations
·     The National Forest Store – Forest Service on-line map sales service
for many national forest/grassland visitor maps
·     Retail Stores-sporting goods and outdoor stores, book stores, etc.
·     US Geological Survey  (USGS) Store  - on-line sales service for many
     Federal map products, including national forest/grassland visitor
maps

For more information call our Bradshaw Ranger District at (928) 443-8000.

Prescott National Forest fire officials are taking advantage of the rain and snow this week to continue burning slash piles in the Prescott Basin and near Crown King through Friday, Feb. 2. Residents in the surrounding communities will see the smoke, which may settle during the night. Officials don't expect to close any roads or cause any traffic delays.

Prescott National Forest officials are closing portions of Granite Mountain and Thumb Butte to encourage nesting peregrine falcons. The closures start Feb. 1 and end July 15.

For Granite Mountain, the closure is the same as it's been for the past 12 years: stay off the Granite Mountain rock cliff face and the rim above the rock face, extending 100 feet back from the edge of the cliff face. That means no rock climbing or any other means of access. Trail 261 remains open. Maps of the closed areas are posted throughout the Granite Basin Recreation Area.

On Thumb Butte, both the north and south climbing faces, the top of the butte and the areas at the base of the climbing faces are closed. Trail 33 remains open for hiking. Maps of the closed area are posted around the Thumb Butte area.

For more info call Noel Fletcher at the Bradshaw Ranger District, (928) 443-8020 or Larry Bright at the Prescott National Forest (928) 567-1170.

Our snow turned to rain in the Valley of the Sun this weekend. The juxtaposition of rain and saguaros seems unnatural, but that's stereotyping for you. The weatherman says that after the rain and snow all weekend, it will be nice and sunny when you to go back to work Monday morning.

Following are pictures from the first substantial snow in the Prescott-area this year:

With the extended cold temperatures, open water in the Central Highlands is hard to come by. These ducks have taken to paddling the section of Granite Creek between Gurley and Goodwin. There's a trail next to the creek there and Thomas Arnold was the first to set his Chaco tracks in the snow - we caught sight of him in shorts running with his three dogs down the road two hours after the snow fell Sunday morning.

Do you have some good pictures of this weekend's snow? Mail them to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it and we'll post them.