Increased runoff has fire experts preparing for harsh season

BURLEY, Idaho - Increased runoff from massive snowpacks in Idaho’s mountains could lead to more intense fires this summer, federal wildfire officials say.

“It’s very, very difficult to predict what to expect in a fire season,” Bureau of Land Management fire management officer Chris Simonson said. “It’s our job to prepare for the worst, and the track record of the last few years sets us up to be busy.”

Randy Richter, Simonson’s U.S. Forest Service counterpart with the Sawtooth National Forest, agrees.

“I think it’s going to be an active year. I think we’ll see a lot of fire activity in the West,” he said. “We see a little bit of improvement due to the precipitation over the winter, but I wouldn’t say it’s cured the long-term drought.”

Simonson and Richter said increased runoff from snowpacks can lead to more intense fires because the ample water usually leads to higher volumes of small plants and grasses that help start fires. There may not be more fires, but those that do flare up would be hotter.

“They last longer, they’re more dangerous, more complex,” Simonson said.

Although the beginning of the fire season is not for a while, land management agencies are planning firefighting efforts, the federal officials said.

Simonson said firefighters learned from major wildfires that scorched Southern Idaho last season.

The Forest Service is looking at changing its regulations to allow more training of private citizens to fight fires, Richter said.

At the Castle Rock fire, many residents had equipment that could have been used to cut fire lines. Farmers and ranchers near the Black Pine fire in Cassia County volunteered their time and resources but were turned away for safety reasons.

“Safety is our number one concern out there,” Simonson said. “No one wants to see the range burned or their homes burned, but the worst thing of all is for them to lose their lives.”

BLM spokeswoman Heather Tiel-Nelson said seven of the 10 worst fire years have taken place since 1999, and the immediate future doesn’t look much better.

“All points are indicating that we’re in these years of megafires,” she said.

Drought has been a factor in recent harsh fire years, and global warming means conditions are unlikely to change soon, Simonson said.

“What we need to get at is why. Why is it all happening? The science of it usually takes a little while to catch up,” he said. “There are a lot of theories out there. There isn’t that much hard and fast information.”