An update on prescribed burns in the Methow Valley from Meg Trebon, assistant fire management officer/fuels for the Methow Valley Ranger District:
“This summer’s wildfires have had a profound impact on our community and on our forest. I’ve had questions from some of you about why we’re considering burning at all this fall, and want to tell you that we wouldn’t plan to put fire on the ground this fall if we didn’t think it was important to reduce hazards that directly affect wildfire protection on private and National Forest lands.
“All of the projects we want to work on this fall contain fuel accumulations created by thinning activities. Seeing where similar untreated fuels burned quite severely in the Carlton Complex Fire this summer, as well as where recent fuels treatments helped minimize fire behavior and increased firefighter safety, has strengthened our conviction that we need to reduce these fuels while we have the window of opportunity this fall. We do not plan to do any landscape-scale under burns this season. You’ll be updated regularly on our plans, and are welcome to visit a burn operation in progress (please call in advance!).
“We have three treatment areas to work on this fall:
• Near the west end of Wolf Creek Road, the Lucky 7/17 unit is about 123 acres and can only be underburned in the fall because of wildlife considerations. We’re planning to work on this unit as soon as staffing is available and weather/fuels conditions allow.
• In the Cub Creek drainage, we have about 300 acres of hand and machine piles in two locations, as well as numerous landings in Urchin Timber Sale units. The hand and machine piles will most likely be burned later in September or into October, while the landings will be burned in October/November after sufficient moisture has fallen. Some of these landings still have good firewood in them; contact the district office for maps.
• The Lucky U52 Timber Sale unit next to the Eidelweiss community has landings created by harvest. We will burn these landings after snow is on the ground.
“The 10-day weather outlook indicates a widespread wet weather system moving across the state mid-week. This is just the kind of weather we’ve been waiting for to consider prescribed burning here. I’ll monitor the weather and keep you posted on our plans.”
