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.