Western US Outlook 2005

[NJFFSA16]

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) - Research by federal agencies and Oregon
State University concludes the summer forest fire threat for
Montana and five other Western states is of -- quote -- "historic
proportions."
The report says forest and rangeland fires this summer could be
unusually severe, and probably the worst in the nation.
Ronald Neilson is a botany professor at Oregon State and a
federal bio-climatologist. He says the projection is for the
problem to worsen, and reach levels generally seen during the Dust
Bowl of the 1930s.
The report predicted the severe conditions for Montana, Wyoming,
Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

APTV 03-16-05 0926EST

[EMTZeek]

thats comforting...lol

[NJFFSA16]

By CHARLES E. BEGGS
Associated Press Writer
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - With Oregon irrigation reservoirs at 50
percent of normal and snowpack even less, Gov. Ted Kulongoski
announced measures Monday that he hopes will lessen the threat to
farmers and fire-prone forests from one of the driest winters on
record.
The dry spell "has serious implications for the state's economy
as our summer months are critical to agriculture, fishing and
recreation," Kulongoski said at a news conference.
Instead of the steady rains in lower elevations and heavy
snowfall in the mountains that are normal for this time of year,
Oregon has had one dry day after another.
Barry Norris, technical services chief for the state Water
Resources Department, said the state is facing a water year nearly
as dry as 1977, which had set records for low snowpack.
Snowpack conditions statewide now average 44 percent of normal,
with forecasted streamflow for most of the state around 50 percent
of normal.
The drought is causing anxieties for many - among them growers
and planners for the upcoming wildfire season.
Kulongoski said the state Forestry Department will assemble a
plan by April 1 - a month earlier than usual - for rounding up
extra firefighting crews and obtaining equipment, such as air
tankers for water drops.
Kulongoski said the state is hampered by having all nine of its
large Chinook National Guard helicopters, often used to battle
forest fires, assigned to duty in the Middle East.
The state's potential firefighting force also is reduced, he
said, by having more than 1,000 Guard members serving in Iraq,
Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Kulongoski said he won't hesitate to seek federal help if needed
for the wildfire season.
"Oregon has and continues to make great contributions to the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," Kulongoski said. "But if the
safety of our forests, our citizens and our economy become
threatened because we do not have the flight tools or the
people-power to fight fires, I expect the federal government to
take whatever steps necessary to make sure Oregon doesn't pay twice
for our contributions."
The governor said he will consider whether to declare a
statewide drought emergency next week after getting a
recommendation from the state Drought Council, a technical panel.
"I expect any recommendation about how to proceed to position
Oregon to tap every available resource from the federal, state and
local levels so that we are doing everything we can to meet the
water needs of our communities," Kulongoski said.
He already has declared emergencies in Baker County, in Eastern
Oregon, and Southern Oregon's Klamath County, a move that can give
water users more flexibility to tap emergency water supplies.
Similar requests for declarations are pending from several other
counties.
The governor urged the public to take steps to conserve water,
even such small ones as planting spring flowers that don't need a
lot of water and washing cars less often.
Most important is heeding public officials' request to conserve,
he said.
The governor said his official Web site will give information
including drought and fire plans, weekly updates on drought and
wildfire conditions and water conservation and fire prevention
strategies.
Norris said use of some water in northeastern Oregon's Umatilla
County already is being limited to holders of water rights
established by 1905 or earlier, a step he said usually isn't taken
until July. Oldest water rights have first preference when supplies
dwindle.
Power supplies and prices also could be affected.
Bonneville Power Administration officials say the expected
Columbia River streamflow at The Dalles will be about 66 percent of
normal. The federal power marketing agency provides almost one-half
of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest, mostly from federal
dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers.
---
On the Net:
Kulongoski: http://governor.oregon.gov/
Drought Monitor: http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[EMTZeek]

NJ I take it your not in CA?

[NJFFSA16]

You take it correctly. NJ is in NJ.

[NJFFSA16]

HELENA (AP) - There is little hope that enough snow will fall
this season to lift Montana out of the ongoing drought, speakers
warned at the monthly meeting of the state's Drought Advisory
Committee.
"We're running out of time on the snowpack," Roy Kaiser, water
supply specialist with the Natural Resources and Conservation
Service in Bozeman, told the committee Tuesday. "Basically, we're
now looking to rain."
Kaiser said a storm that brought snow to Montana this week,
lingered and may end up leaving 20 inches of snow in the mountains
translates to 2 to 4 inches of moisture. It would take 11 inches of
moisture - or more than 100 inches of snow - within the next three
weeks to bring the snowpack to normal levels in the
Sun-Teton-Marias river basin, Kaiser said.
The committee also was told the lack of snow led to frost damage
for winter wheat and raised concerns about a lack of water for
irrigation and stock, as well as concerns about the upcoming
wildfire season.
Peggy Stringer of the federal Agricultural Statistics Service,
said about 32 percent of the exposed winter wheat crop suffered
heavy to moderate damage from freezing and drought, compared to 17
percent in February 2004.
Meanwhile, topsoil moisture necessary to grow crops was rated 85
percent short or very short in February, compared to 34 percent a
year ago.
Stringer said the prolonged drought has reduced Montana's cattle
inventory to 2.35 million head, the lowest since 1990. Ranchers in
Fergus and Petroleum counties are selling off more cattle because
of shortages of stock water, hay and pasture.
Even if spring rains help crops, increase streamflows and lessen
the fire danger, the impact of the ongoing drought will take years
to reverse, Stringer said.
In the short term, it would take six months of precipitation at
100 percent to 150 percent of normal to end the drought, according
to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But hydrologist Gina Loss of the National Weather Service said,
"I don't think it's going to take care of all the accumulated
effects we've seen over the past six to nine years."
The dry winter months aren't a good sign for the fire season,
but "what really lets us know is when we move into June and see
what kind of moisture we're getting," said Ray Nelson of the
Missoula-based Northern Rockies Interagency Fire Coordination
Center.
On the bright side, many reservoirs are at or above their normal
storage levels, said NRCS's Kaiser. Spring rains could help carry
irrigators and fisheries through the dry summer months.
An exception is Clark Canyon Reservoir in southwestern Montana,
which has only 40 percent of its normal storage.
---
Information from: Great Falls Tribune,
http://www.greatfallstribune.com

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

SEATTLE (AP) - As states in the Pacific Northwest prepare for
what forecasters say could be a very bad wildfire season, forest
officials are asking whether the war in Iraq will crimp their
ability to call on National Guard troops for fire duty.
Guard units in some Northwest states have been returning home in
recent months, but the concern now is whether they'll be released
from federal service and ready to help fight fires in the region.
Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire
Center in Boise, Idaho, said she's fielded many questions regarding
the availability of the National Guard, but it's too soon to say if
and where they'll be needed.
Governors in several states are already rallying the troops.
"The Pacific Northwest, including northern Idaho and western
Montana, has pretty serious water and fuel issues, so the folks in
those states are being wise to look at preplanning," Davis said.
Wildland fires burned more than 155,000 acres in 2004 across
Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. A preliminary outlook this
year shows above-normal fire potential in the Northwest.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer asked the Pentagon to free up some of the
1,500 Montana National Guard soldiers still on active duty because
of the war in Iraq. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National
Guard Bureau, said he couldn't do that, but he promised help from
other states if Schweitzer requests it.
U.S. operations in Iraq have stripped Montana of its 12 UH-60
Black Hawks, which played critical roles in 2003 when wildfires in
Montana burned more than 736,800 acres. This year, 10 Black Hawks
remain in the Middle East and two are set to return but must
undergo inspection and maintenance.
The helicopters in the past were dispatched with 600-gallon
buckets to drop water on fires, said Maj. Scott Smith, a Guard
spokesman. A new option this year could be to use the Guard's four
CH-47 Chinook helicopters, each capable of carrying a 2,000-gallon
water bucket - but first, flight engineers will have to be trained
to serve on each four-person crew.
"It really is a matter of being prepared," said Holly
Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who
requested an assessment of National Guard resources available
during the 2005 fire season.
The bulk of Oregon's 8,000-plus soldiers have returned from
overseas deployments. Its five Chinook helicopters have been
deployed to Afghanistan, but 12 Black Hawk helicopters could be
readily available, said Capt. Mike Braibish, spokesman for the
Oregon National Guard.
The state also launched a drought and fire Web site to serve as
an information hub for the public, as well as for federal, state
and local agencies to use in identifying water and fire conditions
across Oregon.
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire in early March declared a
drought emergency and ordered the National Guard to prepare for
wildfire duty this summer. At her request, the Legislature passed a
measure allowing the governor to activate the Guard so soldiers can
be trained prior to deployment for emergencies such as wildfires.
When responding to wildfires, the Department of Natural Resource
relies first on its own employees, seasonal firefighters and
contract crews, as well as inmates from the Corrections Department,
said Janet Pearce, a spokeswoman with the department in Washington.
"We're feeling fairly confident that we have enough available
resources," she said. The National Guard would be used only when
all other avenues are exhausted, and even then it would serve only
a support role - setting up base camps and transporting
firefighters.
Most of Washington's 8,200 National Guardsmen will be available
for state duty. However, the 81st Armor Brigade - with about 3,200
soldiers normally called to respond to state emergencies - has been
trickling back from Iraq in recent months, and the state's adjutant
general has asked that it be the last deployed to fight fires.
"Our last resort would be to call upon the services of someone
who recently returned from Iraq," said Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, a
National Guard spokesman at Camp Murray.
Instead, the 96th Troop Command in Tacoma has been earmarked as
the other "big muscle group" to use if needed during the wildfire
season, Clayton said.
The 1,000-member group was identified during last year's fire
season, after the 81st was first deployed to Iraq.
The Guard for several weeks has been planning various stages of
activation, from supplying limited transportation and logistics
support to deploying soldiers on fight fires. It's something
they've done since the 1994 record fire season when 1,500 Guardsmen
had to work on the fire lines, said Clayton.
"We're hoping for a mild fire season," he said. "We're
planning for it to be a robust fire season."
---
On the Net:
National Interagency Fire Center:
http://www.nifc.gov/index.html

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

By BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press Writer
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Wally Bennett remembers how it once was -
going for eight, maybe 10 days on a fire assignment, then coming
home with the battle won and much of the summer left.
But in recent years, with the Western fire season becoming
longer and the fires more intense, the demand for specialized
incident management teams like his has grown, and so have the
demands on team members.
"And that gets to be quite a burden on the people," said
Bennett, 58, who juggles his firefighter duties with a state job in
Kalispell. "It's a major impact on your family."'
Federal fire officials say it's getting harder to find
experienced fire managers like Bennett who are willing to drop
everything on a couple hours' notice to serve on the highly skilled
teams used to confront the nation's most complex blazes.
Retirements, disinterest and increased responsibilities at home
and work are shrinking the number of people able, or willing, to
work with top-level incident management teams. And, there are fewer
of those teams now than 15 years ago.
"Certainly, standing still isn't an option," said Tom Harbour,
the director of fire and aviation for the U.S. Forest Service.
An interagency report released earlier this year recommends,
among other things, creating smaller, full-time teams focused on
incident management - to ease the strain on the existing ones - and
requiring federal land agency workers to get involved in fire
management efforts.
That was the expectation when Mike Lohrey started out more than
30 years ago. While the expectation is still found in agency
manuals, it is not being enforced, the report said.
"We have to get back to saying, 'This is part of our duties,"'
said Lohrey, who is with the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon.
The study found a "skill gap" of workers ready to assume
high-ranking incident management roles. It also cited a 2003 survey
of upper tier incident management teams - area command, Type 1 and
Type 2 teams - that indicated most members would need to be
replaced in the next few years. Some of those gaps are now already
being filled by retirees.
Type 1 incident command teams carry about 30 members, including
experts on planning, logistics, safety and finance. The teams take
turns being on-call for complex wildfires and other emergencies,
like hurricane relief, and need to be packed and ready to roll
within two hours.
Qualification takes years - sometimes the better part of a
career.
When Steve Frye began his firefighting career in 1966, he
considered a 2,000-acre fire a big deal. Over the years, the fires
have gotten larger and more complex, threatening communities and
housing developments.
Frye, who led a Type 1 team for nine years, saw both sides of
the fight in the summer of 2003. While he was managing fires - and
the armies of personnel fighting them - a blaze at Glacier National
Park was threatening his own family's home.
"I had great confidence in the teams here, but I can assure
you, it was a very intense time for me," said Frye, the park's
chief ranger.
Frye stepped down as incident commander after last season,
making way for another leader whose tenure Frye says may be cut
short by work obligations.
Incident management teams are not full-time jobs, though some
years, it can seem that way to members like Phil Perkins. According
to the report, the number of assignments for teams grew from an
average of 2.5 before 1994 to 5.3 assignments in 2003. Non-fire
events such as hurricane relief and the recovery of the shuttle
Columbia also have demanded the teams' attention.
Perkins, the fire management officer at Yellowstone National
Park, said he missed his children's first day of school, when he
was dealing with park fires in 1988. And, in recent summers, his
assistant had to pick up some of his park duties.
Harbour, who was part of the group that worked on the incident
management report, said there is sufficient manpower to deal with
what could be a busy wildfire season out West this summer. But he
sees the proposals as offering a "more holistic approach to
success in the future."
A team of fire officials planned to meet to consider how the
study's recommendations can be implemented. A report from the task
group was expected this fall.
---
On the Net:
USDA Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management:
http://www.fs.fed.us/fire

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Associated Press Writer
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Winter and spring rain patterns boosted the
growth of grasses and low-lying vegetation - setting the stage for
a worse than normal fire season in the Southwest, Northern Rockies
and Alaska, federal wildfire forecasters say.
"We are very concerned because we've had all the grass growth
but the forests in the higher elevations of the Northwest and the
Northern Rockies have missed out on all their snowpack," Rick
Ochoa, the national fire weather program manager for the National
Weather Service, said Wednesday.
"Usually, when that snowpack gradually melts, you are basically
watering the trees every day, but we're missing that this year."
While the Rocky Mountain region had a dry winter and wet spring,
the pattern flip-flopped in the Southwest. A wetter-than-normal
winter caused flooding and mudslides in Arizona, New Mexico,
southern Nevada and Southern California, followed by a dry spring.
Much of the Southwest's vegetation has already dried,
dramatically boosting fire potential.
The fire season in the Northern Rockies could be marked by a
wetter-than-average summer. "Storms usually mean lightning and
that's where we get the ignition for most of our fires in this
region," said Boise National Forest Fire and Aviation Officer Guy
Pence.
Forecasters at the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center
don't expect a repeat of last year's record-setting fire season in
Alaska, when nearly 6.4 million acres were scorched. Ochoa said
they anticipate higher-than-normal fire activity in the western
Kenai Peninsula, however, where stands of spruce trees have been
killed by insects.
Excluding Alaska, last year was a relatively mild fire season in
the West, burning 1.4 million acres, according to the U.S.
Department of Interior.

APTV 05-25-05 1942EDT

[NJFFSA16]

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Associated Press Writer
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - With fresh snow blanketing mountaintops and
unseasonably cool June temperatures around the West, federal
forecasters are backing away from previous predictions of a
busier-than-normal fire season.
"Of course we are going to have a fire season, but the large
fire danger has moderated and it's not going to be as dire as we
first thought," said Larry Van Bussum, national fire weather
operations coordinator for the National Weather Service.
The Predictive Services Unit of the federal government's
national wildfire coordination center here is expected to release
its latest western fire season outlook Friday, downgrading previous
"above normal" forecasts for much of the Pacific Northwest and
Rockies to "normal."
Fire-weather forecasters say the summer wildfire outlook for
Washington and Oregon is being scaled back to normal, with the
exception of the northwest Cascade Range and northeastern Oregon.
In the Great Basin region, most of Nevada now is expected to have a
normal fire season, while the critical danger in the Northern
Rockies is expected primarily in the higher elevations of the Idaho
Panhandle, western Montana and the Salmon and Challis areas of
eastern and central Idaho.
Fire-weather forecasters say their original projections were
based on the dry winter experienced in many parts of the Northwest
and Rockies, a trend reversed in the Southwest, where winter
precipitation set records.
The wet spring has eased much of the fire threat, and long-range
forecasting models call for cooler and wetter-than-normal weather
through June in the entire Northwest quadrant of the country, as
well as northern California and western Montana.
"Early in the season, the snowpacks and winter precipitation
patterns were just dreadful," said Heath Hockenberry, National
Weather Service fire program manager. "However, all that outlook
can be basically canceled out by a wet June."
Tuesday, a chilly Pacific storm moved through the interior West,
dumping up to 8 inches of snow in the Wasatch Range of Utah. It
came on the heels of another wild winter-like blast - complete with
two tornadoes - in Wyoming's Bighorn Basin that forced state
highway officials to put snowplow trucks back into service to clear
several inches of slushy hail and snow from roadways late last
week.
"In much of western Oregon right now, we've already had a
month's worth of rain, so the normal precipitation for June has
already fallen," said Oregon State Climatologist George Taylor in
Corvallis, Ore. "In the Northwest, it's dry enough every year for
fires, but the biggest variable we've seen is the number of dry
lightning storms, which tends to make for a bad fire year."
Precipitation during May and early June has moistened the
rotting logs and fallen timber that fuels catastrophic fires.
Forecasters say continued cool temperatures have helped retain that
moisture into a period when fuel loads would normally be drying
out.
Ninety-degree days are frequent in southwestern Idaho by
mid-June, but Boise-area temperatures have been 5-to-10 degrees
below normal and the trend could challenge the existing record for
the latest appearance of the first 90-degree-day of the summer, set
on July 6, 1953.
"Traditionally, there's a decent, consistent path toward
90-degree weather that begins in June," said Hockenberry. "But
we're definitely not seeing that."

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said
Friday he does not share Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's concerns
that there won't be enough National Guard troops or aircraft to
help fight summer wildfires in the state this year.
Rey, in Missoula to visit with officials from a private air
tanker contractor, said he believes the Forest Service will have
enough military personnel and aircraft available to help fight
summer fires.
In March, Schweitzer asked the military to return some of the
1,500 National Guard soldiers, along with 10 Guard helicopters,
from service overseas, including in Iraq. Schweitzer cited fears of
a major summer wildfire season and a lack of personnel to fight the
flames.
The troops often are called upon to supplement firefighters, and
Schweitzer said he feared the Guard members' absence during the
fire season could be catastrophic.
Rey, who directs U.S. Forest Service policy for the USDA, said
the Defense Department has committed two battalions of 1,000
soldiers each to firefighting this year, and they've undergone fire
training and will be available to help.
"We have adequate aviation assets available to us, not
including the National Guard helicopters," he said. "We think we
can backfill so that the lack of the National Guard helicopters is
not a problem."
Rey's comments came during a tour of Neptune Aviation's aerial
tanker facility in Missoula. The company is partnering with the
Canadian airplane manufacturer Bombardier to develop a new family
of aerial firefighting tankers.
The plan is to convert 37-passenger commercial aircraft made by
Bombardier into tankers capable of carrying about 1,600 gallons of
fire retardant.
"You have to come up with a modern platform in this industry if
you want to continue fighting fires, and there aren't many
options," said Mark Timmons, owner and chief executive officer of
Neptune.
Rey said the Forest Service realizes the need for alternative
craft for fighting fires from the air, but added that a lot of work
needs to be done to develop and certify new aircraft for that use.
"We are in a period of transition to the next generation of
heavy air tankers," he said. "So we are interested in any of the
options that are currently being explored by people in this
business."
Timmons predicted it may be a year before the new tankers would
be available because of the lengthy development and certification
process.
He plans to start with two of the Dash-8 Q200 planes from
Bombardier and expects the cost of buying and modifying the craft
will be about $4 million each. Tanks will be installed inside the
passenger compartments.
Neptune, one of the largest tanker operators hired by the Forest
Service, hopes to eventually phase out the old P-2V Navy planes
that are the core of the Neptune fleet and replace them with the
smaller Bombardier models, Timmons said.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

Facts about wildfires burning more than ten-thousand acres in the
U-S as of 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

ARIZONA

Florida Fire
-- Evacuations are in effect for Madera Canyon.
-- Special attention is being paid to structures in Madera
Canyon and the Mt. Hopkins Observatory.
-- Located eleven miles southwest of Green Valley.
-- Blaze covers 22-thousand acres.
-- Fifty percent contained.
-- Cost estimated at 6.5 (m) million dollars.
-- Officials are not giving an estimated date for containment.

NEW MEXICO

Fork Fire
-- Covers 12-thousand acres.
-- Cost estimated at 1.4 (m) million dollars.

Johnson Fire
-- Covers 11-thousand 600 acres.
-- Cost estimated at 895-thousand dollars.

Black Range Complex Fire
-- Covers over 70-thousand acres.
-- Cost estimated at two (m) million dollars.

NEVADA

Esmerelda Fire
-- Located 46 miles northeast of Battle Mountain, Nevada.
-- Covers 61-thousand acres.
-- This fire is ten percent contained.
-- Officials estimate the fire will be contained on July 21.

Wilson Complex Fire
-- Covers 16-thousand acres.
-- Structures are threatened.
-- It is not clear when the fire will be contained.

IDAHO

Clover Fire
-- The fire is located 30 miles south of Hammett, Idaho.
-- Covers 180-thousand acres.
-- It is approximately 30 percent contained.
-- Fire officials estimate the fire will be contained by July
20.
-- Cost estimated at 350-thousand dollars.

West Gilson Fire
-- The fire is located seven miles north of Leamington, Idaho.
-- Covers 15-thousand acres.
-- Containment is estimated at 60 percent.
-- Fire officials expect to fully contain the fire today.
-- Cost estimated at 400-thousand dollars.

ALASKA

Boundary Creek Fire
-- Covers 10-thousand acres.
-- Is approximately five percent contained.
-- It is not known when the fire will be fully contained.
-- The fire started on Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act land
six miles southeast of Eagle, Alaska.
-- Cabins and outbuildings remain threatened.
-- Cost estimated at 400-thousand dollars.

Fox Creek Fire
-- Covers 31-thousand 100 acres.
-- Fire is located 35 miles southeast of Soldotna, Alaska.
-- Cost estimated at 238-thousand dollars.


QUOTE
"We're in for a hot, dangerous year."
-- California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.

(Source: National Interagency Fire Center)

On the Web: http://www.nifc.gov

[NJFFSA16]

By P. SOLOMON BANDA
Associated Press Writer
KIOWA, Colo. (AP) - A fast-moving wildfire forced the evacuation
of about 50 homes near Denver on Wednesday as flames blackened a
landscape of rolling grasslands and ponderosa pines.
Deputies went door-to-door warning residents to leave a cluster
of houses about 25 miles southeast of Denver. Two air tankers were
dropping fire-retardant on the 800-acre blaze.
"It's doubling in size every two hours," Elbert County Sheriff
Bill Frangis said. One firefighter suffered a heat-related injury,
and one horse was burned, he said.
Fire crews worked quickly, containing the blaze by late evening.
"They got on it fast," said Larry Helmerick of the Rocky
Mountain Area Coordination Center.
Only two homes remained threatened. Officials were slowly
allowing people to return home, but most remained evacuated. It was
not known how the fire started.
Residents said small fires started by lightning were common in
the area, where homes occupy lots up to 60 acres. Many property
owners are experienced in putting the blazes out themselves.
Hank Smith said he spent about two hours throwing dirt on the
fire to stop it from advancing. He got so close, he said, that
"when I pushed my glasses up, it burned my eyebrows."
Eleven fire departments battled the flames, which were being
driven by winds of 10 to 15 mph that authorities feared could
strengthen to 30 to 35 mph.
Firefighters were hampered by relentless heat. Denver reached
105 on Wednesday, tying the all-time record for hottest day, set on
Aug. 8, 1878, according to the National Weather Service. It was the
second straight day of triple-digit temperatures, far above the
normal highs in the upper 80s.
Elsewhere Wednesday, fire crews battled two blazes near Mesa
Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado and braced for the
possibility that lightning could spark new blazes.
Fire information officer Jen Chase said trees were so dry that
the probability of lightning starting a fire was 100 percent, and
any new fires were likely to spread quickly.
A nearly 200-acre lightning-caused fire on the Ute Mountain Ute
Indian reservation was 70 percent contained, and a second blaze on
the reservation covering 2,318 acres was 85 percent contained.
Crews used tactics to avoid damaging fragile archaeological
sites and artifacts, dropping retardant from the air.
Archaeological treasures on the reservation rival those at Mesa
Verde National Park, said Tom Rice, the tribe's resource adviser.
They include cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, stone tools and pottery.
In southern Arizona, a 22,500-acre fire was about 75 percent
contained, thanks to burnouts and heavy rain, lessening the threat
to about 30 homes and cabins and wildlife habitat in Madera Canyon.
Full containment of the blaze was expected by Thursday evening,
said fire spokeswoman Donna Nemeth.
In northern California, firefighters contained a wind-blown
wildfire that grew to more than 10,000 acres early Wednesday but
burned past a nuclear weapons laboratory and some 500 homes without
causing major damage, said Chopper Snyder, a California Department
of Forestry dispatcher.
The fire left the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
untouched after an initial scare. Officials at the lab had declared
an emergency, allowing other agencies to help protect an
experimental test site at the facility.
In Oregon, firefighters battled a 5,000-acre blaze on the Warm
Springs Indian Reservation. The fire was not threatening any homes,
but "it's got an awful lot of potential," said Gary Cooke, fire
administrator for the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.
Rafting along the nearby Deschutes River had been suspended, but
by Wednesday officials allowed rafters to return. Monitors stood on
the banks with bullhorns to help rafters stay out of the way of
helicopters that dipped for water.
The National Interagency Fire Center said 36 large fires were
active Wednesday in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Nearly 3.9
million acres of land has been burned so far this year, compared
with 4.4 million at this time last year.
---
On the Net:
Interagency Center: http://www.nifc.gov/

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

By SHANNON DININNY
Associated Press Writer
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - Fire managers in the Pacific Northwest
warned that the spring's heavy rains wouldn't prevent the summer
wildfire season - only delay it.
Now, like tardy students late for homeroom, the fires are here,
and officials say the season could extend well into September in
some particularly parched areas.
"It is later. It's not canceled," said Rose Davis, spokeswoman
for the National Interagency Fire Center, based in Boise, Idaho.
"Although we got that moisture in spring, you can't undo the
drought in one year."
On Wednesday, the center listed fire danger as very high to
extreme in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
Of 35 large active fires burning in the country, 25 were in the
Pacific Northwest or Northern Rockies.
The risk also was very high for parts of Arizona, California,
Nevada and New Mexico, though the fire season is generally winding
down in the Southwest, where it begins earlier and then faces
summer rains.
So far this year, the number of fires across the West is below
the 10-year average, but the number of acres burned is higher. A
wet spring and early summer led to dramatic growth of fuels such as
grasses and brush, which burn more quickly, Davis said.
"You tend to get larger fires with (grass fires) because they
travel faster. Those are the kinds of fires we're seeing so far
this year," Davis said.
In Washington state, plants gone brittle from drought crunch
underfoot. Campfire restrictions have been imposed on state and
federal lands, and some recreation areas have been closed to the
public.
"Typically, in a normal year, we do a gradual restriction on
campfires," said Bette Cooney, spokeswoman for the Naches Ranger
District in Washington's Wenatchee National Forest. "But this year
is a different year. Things are just really, really dry."
Gov. Brian Schweitzer declared an emergency for wildfire danger
in Montana, authorizing National Guard pilots to begin training to
fight wildfires. They could be activated if local, state or
commercial pilots aren't available.
In Arizona, the wildfire season has been among the worst ever,
based solely on acreage. Fires have burned mostly desert grasses,
consuming vast acreage but relatively little timber and few homes.
One fire alone in 2002, for example, destroyed about 465 homes;
this year the count of burned homes from all fires is fewer than
50.
Similarly, the largest fire in the Northwest this week was
burning largely in grass and wheat, but moving into timber. The
fire exploded from 150 acres to about 32,000 acres, aided by winds
that pushed it from gullies to dryland wheat fields and toward the
Umatilla National Forest in southeastern Washington. It eventually
consumed 41,000 acres and more than 100 homes - mostly recreational
cabins.
The fire was one of several in the West raising concerns, in
part because forests have largely been spared so far this year.
"We had a really wet spring. It was long, it was cool, it was
wonderful. So we didn't really have a steady drying of things,"
said John Townsley, fire information officer for the Northwest
Interagency Coordination Center in Portland, Ore.
"But there are some places ... where if the weather conditions
continue to be warm and we have some good winds, we could still see
some pretty good-sized fires."
---
On the Net:
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Associated Press Writer
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Wildfire experts have come across a seeming
contradiction this summer: While the number of acres charred across
the West is almost double the 10-year average, the blazes haven't
been as big or devastating as those in past years.
Experts say that's due to the unusual moisture patterns in the
region earlier this year, which favored big grass fires on the open
range. Timber in the mountains got more moisture than usual well
into the summer, keeping forest fires small.
And fate has played a role.
"It's sort of like Swiss cheese. All the holes have not lined
up at the same time," said Tom Wordell, a wildland fire analyst
for the U.S. Forest Service and leader of the multiagency group of
scientists and meteorologists that predicts fire danger around the
nation.
"To get a big fire, you need high temperatures, low relative
humidity, dry fuels and winds all aligned on the same day," said
Wordell. "We haven't seen that much this year, yet our overall
acreage burned is much higher than in the past."
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, over 7.8
million acres - more than 11,000 square miles - have burned in the
U.S. since May. About half of that was in Alaska, where large fires
often are not fought aggressively if they pose no threat to people
or structures.
With the 2005 wildfire season two-thirds over, the number of
fires is down - about 46,000 compared to the 10-year average of
63,000 - and the number of firefighters suppressing the blazes has
been lower than in recent years. Yet the total acreage burned is
nearly double the 4 million acres that burned on average through
late August over the past decade.
Analysts say the primary reason for the higher-than-average fire
acreage this year is huge range fires that burned in the Southwest
and Great Basin, where a wet winter allowed fine grasses and
vegetation to flourish. Those "flashy" fuels then dried and cured
early in the dry spring, inviting the spread of range fires as
summer approached.
"Earlier this season, when we knew we had large fine-fuel
loading, one of the sage old firefighters said to me, 'Man, the
fires are going to be in the deserts this year and not the
mountains.' And that's been the case," said Brad Smith, a Texas
Forest Service fire behavior analyst.
Many of the range fires have been epic in size and speed. A
blaze in late July in southwestern Idaho at one point was burning
500 acres an hour. It eventually blackened an area 35 miles wide
and 10 miles across.
Despite their size, though, the range fires have frequently
burned in areas far from civilization and have caused relatively
little structural damage.
"I'm always cautious to downplay range fires because if it's
your ranch building or grazing allotment that got burned up it's
pretty important," said Wordell, head of the National Predictive
Services Group at the Interagency Fire Center.
"But timber fires require a lot more people, equipment, time
and money to put out, and so far even when we've had lightning
ignition, we didn't get the large fire initiation."
The primary reason for this year's lack of huge timber fires -
the 100,000-plus-acre blazes that make national headlines - is the
moisture retained by trees and foliage in the higher elevations of
the Cascades, the Sierra Nevada and the Northern Rockies, captured
during an unusually long, wet spring.
"We're just not seeing significant spread through the alpine
zones" because of the moist fuels, said Jack Cohen, a research
physical scientist for the U.S. Forest Service's fire sciences
laboratory in Missoula, Mont. "The fire is abating as it burns in
these areas."
Between the moist timber in the high mountains and the fine dry
grasses on the desert range lies the greatest potential for
catastrophic blazes in the remainder of this season, fire analysts
say.
Mid-elevation woodlands with a heavy buildup of dry, dead
material on the forest floor mixed with open areas that have heavy
grass and shrubs are yielding higher than average "energy release
components" - a measure of the available energy that would be
released in the flaming front of a fire.
"In the area that runs from Northern California through central
and eastern Oregon on into central Idaho, we are seeing energy
release components that are setting records," said Wordell.
---
On the Net:
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/
Wildfire Acres Burned:
http://www.fs.fed.us/news/fire/acres.shtml