Juniper Blaze Won’t Inflame Experts’ Anger

If you’re too cheap to buy charcoal for your summer campouts, you’ll find plenty of it in the Juniper Dunes Wilderness Area northeast of Pasco.

A human-caused fire went wild about a mile outside the wilderness Saturday. Winds fanned the blaze directly into the roadless public land. By the time the smoke subsided, flames had rampaged over 8,500 acres in 11 hours.

The charred area encompassed about 6,000 acres of the 7,140-acre wilderness.

While hot spots continue to smolder, investigators are trying to find the culprit who sparked a costly weekend of firefighting and took 2,500 acres of private range out of production for the summer.

But shed no tears for the land. The fire appears to have been an illegal but well-timed blessing.

The Juniper Dunes, the only wilderness in Washington managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, was given federal wilderness status in the 1980s to keep roads and development out of a landscape unique in this state.

This parched natural area is distinguished by sand dunes that have been swept and shaped up to 130 feet tall by dry desert winds. Among the dunes are basins of sage, bitterbrush and grass, plus the largest concentration of western juniper trees remaining in Washington.

The fire, according to early reports, has merely assured that this natural attraction will continue to flourish.

Perhaps if this fire had occurred in Idaho, a congressman or senator would be seizing the moment to pass a “rangeland health law” enabling ranchers to mow down all the remaining sagebrush and junipers to prevent future fires.

Instead, this fire occurred in what most people consider an arid wasteland of Washington. The blaze received little attention outside the local area.

This wasn’t Yellowstone Park. On a much smaller scale, the incident rekindles debate over fire’s natural role in renewing ecosystems.

“We’re in an awkward situation,” said Bill Carleton, BLM fire-control manager in Spokane. “We’d like to let fire do its natural job in wild lands, but, unfortunately, a growing human population makes it difficult. We can’t burn up the neighbors.”

Fire hasn’t groomed the Juniper Dunes since 1981. Grass has been able to take hold and grow at the top of the dunes, anchoring the sand and halting the natural flow of this moving landscape.

The recent fire, however, has burned the grass and liberated the dunes.

Although the wilderness is a critical nesting area for ferruginous and Swainson’s hawks, the fire occurred after most of the chicks had fledged.

About 10 percent of the junipers were lost, BLM officials say. That’s a small price to pay for revitalizing the ecosystem.

Junipers are no strangers to fire. Each juniper has evolved to emit a chemical that inhibits growth of surrounding vegetation. This reduces the competition for moisture in the desert while creating a natural fire break around each tree.

“Some of the outside landowners probably don’t agree, but the fire will help the range in the long run,” said Lou Juhrs, BLM rangeland specialist.

Like most wildfires, the flames skipped and jumped through the wilderness. The flames didn’t burn a swath of destruction. They created a mosaic of new and old growth, vital components to a naturally diverse and healthy ecosystem.

“Some basins burned hot, charring all the sage and bitterbrush to ashes,” Juhrs said. “Some areas burned lightly. A few hundred yards away, on the other side of a dune, the fire might have skipped through and hardly burned anything.”

About 250 firefighters from federal, state and local crews plus local landowners worked to snuff out the fire and minimize the effect on surrounding private range land.

But no fire lines were left within the wilderness boundaries, Carleton said.

The flames that raged through Franklin County last weekend have left few lasting scars on the land.

Nor did the fire destroy plans sensible people might have had for visiting the area over the Fourth of July.

“It was 105 degrees when we were assessing the fire,” said Juhrs. “This isn’t the most pleasant time of year in the dunes.”

Access to the wilderness is closed at least for a few weeks, and surely until the next soaking rain, Carleton said.

But put the Juniper Dunes Wilderness on your hiking agenda for next spring. See for yourself the rejuvenation of an ecosystem.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review