Colville National Forest To Undergo Fall Burning Initially, 3,000 Acres Set Ablaze To Help Wildlife And Spur Growth

About 3,000 acres of the Colville National Forest will be torched this fall to reduce wildfire danger, improve wildlife forage, thin trees and give the soil a dose of nutrients.

By next year the forest plans to step up the burning to 5,200 acres, nearly double what it did just a year ago. Fires this fall will be touched off everywhere from the Kettle Falls area to near Newport.

Two of the fires will be 1,000 acres. One of the large fires will be 10 miles southwest of Republic. The other will be in the New Moon area north of Newport.

The Colville Forest also will do prescribed fires around Pierre Creek - 22 miles north of Kettle Falls, in the Hope Mountain region and other fires near Ione and Metaline Falls.

The ambitious burns will put a blue haze in the air, Forest Service officials acknowledge. But, said Bob Vaught, Colville Forest supervisor, “We are serious about managing smoke with skilled people equipped with the latest technology.”

Fires will be scheduled “to minimize smoke impacts on communities,” he said.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forest does not have similarly ambitious burning plans this year. But it will scorch much larger acreages in the future.

The idea is to use smaller, more controlled fires to reduce the chances of a larger, more destructive wildfire.

“We spent a billion dollars in 1994 (nationwide) fighting fires,” said Peggy Polichio, of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.

It will take several years to turn around the problems 100 years of fire suppression have created. But over time, “increased investment in prescribed fire sets a trend in decreasing cost” for fighting fires, Polichio said.

One of the challenges, however, will be convincing people to accept the changes.

Sixty percent of the fire fighting money goes to dealing with blazes in the urban forest interface, Polichio said.

But “is the public going to allow us to do what we think needs to be done?” she said.

Other benefits of using prescribed fire include recycling forest debris into nutrients more rapidly.

For example, burning transforms nitrogen from organic matter into ammonium and releases the nutrient to the soil, Colville soil scientist Meredith Webster. , DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHERE’S THE FIRE? This fall, the Forest Service will touch off several prescribed fires. Two of the fires will be 1,000 acres: one set 10 miles southwest of Republic, the other in the New Moon area north of Newport. Fires also will be set around Pierre Creek - 22 miles north of Kettle Falls, in the Hope Mountain region and other fires near Ione and Metaline Falls.