Wildfire forecast: More starts, less acreage
JAKE PARRISH/Press file Northern Lakes Fire Marshal Tyler Drechsel, left, and firefighter Tyler Denham work the fire line of a roughly 1-acre fire on Aug. 8, 2016, on private property near Highway 53 and Honu Court. Lightning striking a tree sparked the fire.
By BRIAN WALKER
Staff Writer
COEUR d'ALENE — Even with all that green, there's still a decent chance some of it will turn red this wildfire season.
"What we've been told to expect is more wet thunderstorms moving through the area," said Shane O'Shea, who works in the Mica District of the Idaho Department of Lands. "With that, we're expecting to see an increase in the number of fires, but a decrease in acreage."
Most forest fires in North Idaho are caused by lightning strikes, but a soggy spring followed by a wetter-than-normal summer expected will hopefully help keep those starts at bay, O'Shea said.
"We may have a lot of single-tree fires that are kept small due to the precipitation that follows the lightning start," he said. "That's the model we've been told to expect."
O'Shea said wildfire season in North Idaho typically starts around July 1, but that is expected to be bumped to late July this year thanks to the wet spring.
"It really depends on how much moisture we get this month," he said. "If the temperatures really warm up and the faucet turns off, it could all be for naught."
Shoshana Cooper, public affairs officer with the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, said below-normal fire danger is expected through July and normal danger is predicted for August and September.
"The season will likely be more compressed if (the danger) is average," she said.
She said the "green up" that's occurring now in the forest due to the moisture and high snowpack is a mixed bag when it comes to wildfires.
While it should shorten the wildfire season from four months to perhaps two, the growth also means more fuels for later this summer when temperatures rise.
Cooper said the Forest Service conducted prescribed burns throughout the region during dry stretches in May to reduce hazardous fuels, improve big game habitat and hopefully lessen the impact of wildfire season.
The wildfire season of 2015, which included the Cape Horn Fire near Bayview in which 1,200 acres and eight buildings were burned and families were forced from their homes, was one of the worst in recent memory.
While wildfire season hasn't heated up in North Idaho yet, Cooper said the local Forest Service office has already sent resources, including its Idaho Panhandle Interagency hotshot crew, on more than 100 assignments nationwide this year.
Local firefighters have assisted with prescribed burning, wildfires and other efforts in Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi and Minnesota.
O'Shea said that, as a reminder, residents are required to obtain burn permits through the IDL for backyard burning. There is no fee.
"Even though we have had precipitation, the weather and wind can change things in a heartbeat so be prepared," he said.