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Copyright © 2002 Express Publishing Inc.
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For the week of Sept 25 - Oct 1, 2002

News

Wildfire smolders north of Ketchum in SNRA


By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Wildfire season isn’t over yet.

A 25-acre, human caused wildfire continued to smolder Tuesday about 11 miles north of Ketchum.

The East Fork Fire is approximately five miles east of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters in the North Fork of the Big Wood River drainage. The fire resulted from an unattended campfire, which was probably abandoned sometime last week and flared up Friday evening.

"People seem to get lulled into a false sense of security this time of year," said SNRA Fire Management Officer Bill Murphy. "We get a little rainfall and the temperature cools down, but the dead fuels in the forest are still critically dry. This fire proved that we can still have large forest fires."

More than 80 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and private contractors have been fighting the fire since it broke out late Friday evening. Four engines, four helicopters, two water trucks and a small airtanker have assisted firefighters.

Firefighters estimated Tuesday morning that the fire would be 60 percent contained by nightfall and 100 percent contained this evening. The fire burned in grass, sagebrush, willows, Douglas fir, Engleman spruce and subalpine fir.

Fire officials are concerned about the potential for more fires.

"The recent moisture that we received probably caused this human-caused fire to smolder for a few days," said Sawtooth National Forest Fire and Aviation Officer Randy Richter. "Then, as the weather warmed up during the day, the fire popped up and started burning, with a good head start."

Richter said he is very concerned about the potential for more wildfires that could be started at the hands of campers and hunters. Cooler nights are helping to encourage bigger fires, he said.

"We want to remind people to take the extra time before they leave to make sure their fire is completely dead out," Richter said.

Ironically, perhaps, the Sawtooth National Forest is also taking advantage of cool nighttime temperatures and high autumn atmospheric moisture levels to perform several controlled burns this fall.

Fire officials intentionally burned 178 acres Thursday in Dry Creek Meadow near Stanley Lake, west of Stanley.

Next week, weather permitting, another controlled burn may be performed near Fairfield, where about 1,500 acres in the Lime Creek drainage are scheduled for burning to encourage the expansion of aspen, while thinning dense stands of encroaching Douglas fir. Lime Creek is a few miles northwest of the city of Fairfield.

Prescribed fire is an important tool for natural resource managers, Keller said. Idaho’s ecosystems have become adapted to naturally occurring fires over millions of years, and, by using fire under carefully controlled conditions, land managers can help maintain balance.

Many plant species depend on fire-induced disturbances to reproduce, and fires can release nutrients locked in both living and dead organisms. In turn, many animals benefit from the variety of habitat and new plant growth resulting from low-intensity fires.

Also, Keller pointed out, controlled burns are "very well planned and very well staffed."

"From the outset, there are firefighters on hand, and lines are established before a fire is lit," he said.

The Dry Creek Meadow burn was the first controlled burn conducted on the Sawtooth National Forest in three years, Keller said.

Conversely, there were 47 wildfires, burning 2,524 acres on the Sawtooth National Forest so far this year. Of those, 26 were caused by people and burned 1,233 acres.

Last year at this time, 41 fires burned 1,187 acres, and 18 person-caused fires burned 304 acres.

The average number of wildfires on the Sawtooth National Forest is 52 per year, burning 8,108 acres each year.

 

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