Grand Canyon, AZ – National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) fire managers, working together as the North Zone Interagency Fire Management Program, anticipate initiating pile burning operations at the North Rim over the next 30 days as weather and fuel moisture conditions allow. The North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park remains closed to the public until May 15, 2015 when it re-opens for the summer season.
Fire managers will treat approximately 13 acres of hand piles composed of woody debris as weather conditions allow. These pile burn units are located in the North Rim developed area.
Prescribed fires play an important role in decreasing risks to life, resources, and property. Fire managers carefully plan prescribed fires, initiating them only under environmental conditions that are favorable to assuring firefighter and visitor safety and to achieving the desired objectives. Prescribed fire objectives include reducing accumulations of hazard fuels, maintaining the natural role of fire in a fire-adapted ecosystem, and protection of sensitive cultural and natural resources.
Smoke may be visible from various locations on the South Rim for a limited time after ignitions. Fire managers are working with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality- Smoke Management Division to reduce and mitigate potential smoke impacts.
Plans for each burn unit contain a set of parameters which define the desired weather and fuel conditions under which a prescribed fire can be initiated. Prior to implementing the burns, fire managers will evaluate current conditions and will only begin ignition if the prescribed conditions are within those parameters.
Wenatchee River Ranger District Begins Spring Prescribed Fire Program
Leavenworth, Wash.—Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest fire specialists are prepared for the spring prescribed fire season on the Wenatchee River Ranger District (WRRD). The program will begin in mid-to late March with a projected 400-acres of treatments beginning in the Beaver Valley area near Lake Wenatchee. Treatments will continue as long as conditions allow.
The objectives of these treatments are to improve protection to local communities and enhance forest health and wildlife habitat. Prescribed burn areas maintain and restore vegetation and fuel conditions so if a wildfire should occur, the size, severity and effects can be more manageable.
Prescribed fires are part of the comprehensive Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Restoration Strategy. Forest Service managers began implementing the strategy in 1999 to reduce the threat of uncharacteristically severe wildfires and to return resiliency to unhealthy forest ecosystems.
All Okanogan-Wenatchee N.F. prescribed burns are weather-dependent and fire specialists will cease burning when objectives are not being met or weather conditions are unfavorable.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources regulates smoke management and must approve all controlled burns on national forests within the state and Forest Service fire specialists closely coordinate with the state’s air quality managers. On-the-ground fire specialists continually monitor for favorable winds that can minimize smoke impacts to public health and the risk of fire escape.
For more information please contact WRRD Fire Management at 509.548.2550.
Additional prescribed fire projects planned on Shoshone National Forest
Cody, Wyo. (March 17, 2015) – The Wapiti Ranger District of the Shoshone National Forest is planning to implement prescribed fire projects this spring, as weather and fuel conditions allow.
Prescribed fire projects are planned in the following areas:
· 100 to 700 acres near the junction of State Highway 296 and US Highway 212 to enhance wildlife habitat, aspen regeneration, and reduce hazardous fuels.
· 150 to 500 acres near Bald Ridge and Dead Indian Pass, adjacent to State Highway 296, to reduce hazardous fuels and enhance wildlife habitat.
· 100 to 800 acres on Carter Mountain, near Belknap Creek, Marquette Creek, and Carter Creek, to enhance wildlife habitat and decrease hazardous fuels caused by beetle-killed trees.
· 70 to 600 acres in the corridor of the North Fork of the Shoshone River, near Lost Creek and Clocktower Creek, to enhance bighorn sheep habitat and reduce hazardous fuels.
Signs will be posted in all areas and adjacent land owners will be notified prior to beginning the prescribed fire projects.
For more information about these projects, please contact the Wapiti Ranger District in Cody at 307.527.6921.
As the nation’s first national forest, the Shoshone National Forest has 2.4 million acres of diverse terrain and a mission to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the forest to meet the needs of present and future generations.
FEDERAL AND STATE AGENCIES ANNOUNCE START OF 2015 PRESCRIBED FIRE PROGRAM
BOISE, Idaho - In southwest Idaho this year, the USDA Forest Service, USDI Bureau of Land Management, and the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) plan to ignite prescribed fires on a maximum of 30,977 acres with 18,500 acres planned in the spring and 12,500 acres in the fall. In conjunction with prescribed fire, fire managers will reduce fuels on 21,228 acres with mechanized equipment.
The annual prescribed fire program restores the natural and positive effects of fire in select areas and reduces excessive trees and brush that could feed large wildfires.
To provide updated public information for prescribed fires, the agencies have established a prescribed fire hotline at 208-373-4208. In addition, daily planned burns are posted at www.smokemu.org and additional information for each planned project is posted at www.rxfire.com.
The prescribed fires have specific land management objectives. To meet these objectives fire managers ignite them under specific weather, smoke dispersion, and fuel conditions.
The interagency program works closely with rural communities to reduce fire risks, particularly in the Wildland Urban Interface, while meeting the objectives of the recently completed National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.
The BLM Boise District program uses fuel break construction, mechanized juniper removal and prescribed fire to reduce wildfire size, invasive annual grassland conversion and juniper encroachment in sagebrush rangelands.
The IDL uses prescribed fire primarily to meet fuel reduction requirements after logging operations.
The federal agencies use it to reduce thick forest vegetation, logging slash and to protect or enhance wildlife habitat.
Federal and state land management agencies that ignite prescribed fires work closely with regulatory agencies to monitor air quality in southern Idaho. They have formed a partnership with their counterparts in northern Idaho and Montana to ensure air quality remains acceptable while controlled burns are underway.
The Montana/Idaho Airshed Group is the partnership that provides a means to limit the accumulation of smoke generated by prescribed fires through scientific monitoring of weather conditions and formal coordination.
Plans are submitted to the Montana/Idaho Airshed Group Monitoring Unit in Missoula, Montana before prescribed fires are ignited.
Sixteen geographical “airsheds” in Idaho with similar topography and weather patterns are used to review weather conditions and determines which prescribed fires managers can ignite and which, if any, are delayed to ensure air quality meets federal and state standards.
“This is a mulit-agency coordination effort and all the agencies work very hard to let people know where and when prescribed fires are planned so they can prepare accordingly,” said David Olson, Boise National Forest public affairs officer. “The Montana/Idaho Airshed Group helps ensure federal and state air quality standards are met, and working closely with Idaho DEQ provides the key links to achieve prescribed fire benefits while maintaining acceptable air quality.”
“The Idaho Department of Lands utilizes fire as a management tool to enhance the health and productivity of Idaho’s working lands - our state endowment trust lands,” said Sharla Arledge, IDL public information officer.
For more information about prescribed fires planned in southwest Idaho, contact offices of the Boise and Payette National Forests, the BLM Boise District, and/or the IDL Southwest Idaho Forest Protective District or go to www.rxfire.com.