By Madelyn Beck
Wyoming faces an “average to normal” wildfire season forecast, state leaders and fire officials revealed Friday at an interagency briefing in Cheyenne.
“Northern Wyoming is currently the driest area of the state, and north central Wyoming is expected to have drought conditions likely…throughout the summer,” said State Forester Kelly Norris. “As summer continues and our fuels in the grasslands and mountains dry out, we expect an increase in fire activity, especially in late summer and into fall.”
When asked what “average” means, Norris told WyoFile that there is just as much chance of having a hot, burning season as a more relaxed one, with around 800 fires predicted.
“But we’ve already burned more acres this spring than we burned in all of 2023 because we’ve had some pretty big grass fires,” he added.
Among them was the Happy Jack fire in March, which many saw as a harbinger of major fires to come. It burned 6,616 acres in southeastern Wyoming, but only damaged three residences, according to emergency management personnel.
Although the forecast seems somewhat hopeful, Norris said officials must remain vigilant. If they learned anything from the Happy Jack Fire, he added, it’s that there’s a lot of brush to burn after all the rain last year.
“From my point of view, we have a substantial amount of fuel on the ground,” he said. “Last year we grew a lot of fuel… And that will be the challenge we will have to face.”
With all the early fire dangers this year, Norris said state officials have already had to reassess resources to prepare for longer fire seasons.
“We had counties under fire restrictions in March, April and May,” he said. “A lot of them are removed, but that’s something we haven’t seen or experienced before.”
As for seasonal wildland firefighters, Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service officials said they are sufficiently staffed and ready for the season, even though the cost and availability of housing continues to create hiring challenges. .
“We operate in really remote parts of the country, parts of the state. And sometimes there’s just no housing,” said Chris Campbell, Forest Service deputy regional forestry technician for the intermountain region. “Or it’s very old and not in good condition.”
Northwest Wyoming is particularly challenging for finding quality affordable housing and hiring seasonal firefighters, Wyoming BLM Director Andrew Archuleta and Campbell agreed.
Meanwhile, the state’s six Helitack firefighters will be prepared to respond by helicopter from a ranch in Glenrock when the fires start. On average, they will be called on about 40 to 45 missions a year, said crew member Tommy Harvey. And while his colleague Chris Norquist said they won’t really know what this fire year will be like until it’s over, he has a feeling it will be an “average to busy year.”
Prevention and planning
Again and again, speakers Friday asked the public to do everything they can to prevent wildfires this year.
“One of the most important components to ensuring that we do not have an aggressive fire season is for us as citizens to be careful,” said Governor Mark Gordon. “Let’s not burn our garbage and leave. May we make sure our forest fires are out. “Let’s not do stupid things.”
About 85% of wildfires are caused by humans, said the BLM’s Archuleta, adding that many of those types of unintentional fires occur around roads, towns and recreation areas.
“The public can really help by cleaning up and creating defensible spaces around homes, and really having an evacuation plan and preparing for wildfire season,” he said. “But the most important thing is to be careful when you enjoy public lands. Put out your campfires. Do not throw cigarettes. That kind of things.”
At the same time, important work has been done across the state to prevent fires from getting out of control through the use of treatments such as prescribed burns.
“Through a variety of methods last year, (the BLM) treated more than 150,000 acres here in Wyoming for hazardous fuels,” Archuleta said. “A lot of that is due to noxious weeds and also pre-planned fires…We’re looking at treating about 85,000 acres this year.”
Campbell said his agency treated 134,000 acres of Forest Service lands across the region over the past year through forest thinning, prescribed burns and working with other fire industry partners. And in Wyoming, the agency is on track to treat 18,000 acres by the end of this year.
There have also been millions of dollars of federal grants coming to the state to help local communities and individuals prepare for the worst.
“Wyoming recently received $1.75 million in grants from the U.S. Forest Service for large-scale fuels projects and mitigation planning throughout Wyoming,” Norris said. “Over the past three years, Wyoming has received $5 million in competitive grants for 19 fuels mitigation projects in 13 counties, and that will complete critical field treatments on more than 2,500 acres of private lands within the state.”
Some of the grant money will go directly toward creating community wildfire protection plans, Norris told WyoFile. Other communities are working to knock on doors and educate homeowners about preventive measures.
“We are (getting) new landowners,” he said. “And so it’s a constant, right? “It doesn’t stop just because we ran a wildfire prevention program five years ago.”
But to better prepare for major fires, many speakers pointed to a newly rebuilt base at the Casper airport that will house single-engine tankers and also be able to accommodate heavy tankers.
And finally, efforts are underway to recruit more volunteer and paid firefighters in Wyoming. It’s something Shad Cooper, Sublette County Unified Fire Chief and president of the Wyoming Rural Firefighters Association, said has been supported by recent efforts in the Wyoming Legislature. That included bills to allow state employees leave to fight fires, provide cancer screening benefits and provide a health insurance option for volunteers, among many others.
Fighting wildfires requires cooperation at all levels from every agency, community and level of government, Cooper said.
“We are all part of this because we are all affected by the problem,” he said.
Long term perspective
Just days before officials announced Wyoming’s wildfire forecast, the Forest Service, in partnership with Headwaters Economics, made its first major update to the models used to create national wildfire risk maps at wildfirerisk.org.
“Updates on wildfirerisk.com use the latest science available, latest data on vegetation, climate and buildings to give us a more precise and accurate picture of wildfire risk across the country,” said Kelly Pohl, director associate at Headwaters Economics.
That update shows what analysts and researchers believe is a more accurate assessment of fire danger, including increased risk in more places. As the climate changes, more communities face hazards, including those at higher elevations.
“Every county in Wyoming has at least a moderate risk of wildfire compared to the entire country,” Pohl said. “And 86% of Wyoming’s population lives in high-risk counties. So this is really a widespread problem across the state.”
The tool even includes a way to look at vulnerable populations who could be at higher risk if a fire occurs.
“For example, you can look at where there may be neighborhoods with a high proportion of people who don’t speak English,” he said. “And that’s why you may need to translate your resources and materials into other languages.”
But these maps do not represent the fire danger for a week, a month or a year, but rather the long-term danger, Pohl said.
This may be helpful as fires increasingly pose a year-round danger to western communities, as officials reiterated Friday.
“Our average season isn’t average anymore,” Gordon said. “It’s all year round.”
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent, nonprofit news organization focused on the people, places and policies of Wyoming.
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