The annual ban of open fires in
Phoenix’s desert parks and mountain preserves goes into effect May 1, including at North Mountain Park (photo by Kathryn M. Miller).
Beginning May 1, Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department will put into effect its annual ban of open fires in the city’s desert parks and mountain preserves. The Maricopa County Parks and Recreation Department’s annual fire ban goes into effect the same day. Smoking and charcoal fires are included in the ban due to the extreme fire danger that the combination of low humidity, increased temperatures, excessive dry vegetation, and frequent high winds create each spring.
The ban applies to Camelback Mountain, Deem Hills Recreation Area, Lookout Mountain, Papago Park, Phoenix Mountains Park and Recreation Area, Phoenix Mountains Preserve, Phoenix Sonoran Preserve, North Mountain Park, Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area and South Mountain Park/Preserve. The ban does not apply to the city’s flatland parks.
Motorists traveling through or near Phoenix’s desert parks and mountain preserves should use extreme care with smoking materials and dispose of those only in their vehicle’s ash tray. In addition, to protect their homes, residents whose property borders the city’s preserve land may remove dry shrubs, brush and grasses, and trim dead branches from trees within the 10-foot strip of land that borders their property. By creating this 10-foot “buffer zone’ residents can help to protect their homes from potential brush fires in the adjacent preserve land.
For general information regarding removing vegetation, residents can contact a Phoenix Park Ranger at 602-495-5458 or natural.resources.pks@phoenix.gov.
Detailed information about Phoenix’s 41,000-plus acres of desert parks and mountain preserves, and 200-plus miles of trails, is available at www.phoenix.gov/parks.
