It's a truism in the civil engineering business: When the sun shines, people don't think about flood control.
It's also probably true that when the smoke clears from forest fires, people don't discuss starting new fires to prevent worse blazes.
Fortunately, Forest Service officials do such thinking. They're gearing up for a series of intentional burns of woodlands to lower or even eliminate the risk of wildfires in the future. Controlled burns also remove conifers that are choking aspens.
With the perilously close flames of August's Castle Rock Fire and the images of hundreds of firefighters battling searing flames fresh in mind, Wood River Valley residents will welcome and appreciate the purpose of controlled burns.
Idaho has been afflicted over the past years with a devastating beetle that has taken the life out of pine trees, but left them standing as ready kindling for wildfires. Removing them through burns will drastically reduce fuel for wildfires.
Menacing they may be, but raging wildfires have made more people fire-smart about their woodlands—about camp fire safety, about the need for removing accumulated underbrush that fuels fires, about adequate firefighting protection in remote as well as populated areas.
Regrettably, state and federal agencies responsible for protecting forests and woodlands have watched their budgets depleted because of tinderbox conditions fueling fires. These agencies need public support for added funding.
Controlled burns could not come at a better time, with this new public awareness of the need to keep forests healthy as well as less vulnerable to flames.
