DNR conducts wildfire simulations as smoky conditions already fill the skies
DNR conducts wildfire simulation as smoke already fills the skies
As nearly 100 fires gobbled up large swaths of land in Alberta, Canada, smoke is quickly settling over Washington state-- a reminder that fire season has already begun.
NANEUM, Wash. - As nearly 100 fires gobbled up large swaths of land in Alberta, Canada, smoke is quickly settling over Washington state: a reminder that wildfire season has already begun.
While Washington hasn’t seen the type of destruction that Canada is currently enduring, the weekend heat wave was no joke for firefighters across our state. According to Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, 24 fires burned through roughly 200 acres of land between Saturday and Sunday.
"The context of it being this early is not strange," said Franz, at a training exercise for the state’s aviation personnel. "We’ve gotten more and more familiar. 2021 was an example where our fire season started as early as March and it went well into October."
Some experts have gone so far as to give up on labeling a "fire season," and instead differentiate between a summer and fall fire season.
The focus on Wednesday afternoon was working through how to utilize the state’s growing number of firefighting assets.
It was not long ago that Washington’s fire crews were relying on a handful of Vietnam-era aircrafts for the majority of their aerial firefighting needs.
As the fleet has been modernized, the need to train for congested airspace has grown. On Wednesday, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) personnel replicated wildfire conditions on the ground in Naneum and then launched a number of aircraft to simulate a real-life wildfire where multiple units would be utilized.
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Tim Love, an incident commander, told FOX 13 that their crew relies on a number of people both in the air and on the ground to ensure safety for everyone involved in battling wildfires.
"He carefully choreographs," said Love. "It’s really like a dance of bringing in the right stuff. That’s the thing, we’re really practicing and hammering on making sure we know how to bring all those different parts and pieces."
Franz called it a very dangerous situation that requires precision.
Early predictions indicate that we could see a number of fires late in the traditional fire season. We saw a good amount of rain that created long grasses that will dry out and become fuel in the coming weeks and months.
As we shift from an El Nina to an El Nino weather pattern, there’s also a concern that this year will lead to an even more devastating 2024 wildfire season.
"Obviously, Washington state forests are in trouble," said Franz. They are dying at an unprecedented level and it’s leading to these more catastrophic fires."
Despite a warming climate, and a shift toward longer fire seasons, Washington had a relatively mild 2022 fire season compared to recent history. The state has set a goal to keep 90% of fires at 10 acres or smaller. Last year, they hit a 94% mark. The 206,000 acres burned was below the 10-year average.
Fire isn’t solely about suppression, though. The state has been ramping up its forest health program that was laid out in 2018. Franz said that the 20-year plan to restore 1.25 million acres of forest is nearing the half-way point ahead of schedule.
Part of that plan relies on prescribed fire burns meant to return a patchwork of forests. Before decades of suppression, forests had natural fire breaks that kept mega-fires to a minimum.
"We are trying to move at the pace and scale of wildfire," said Franz. "We will achieve our goal in 10 years, and that’s not just on state lands. That’s federal, private, tribal and state lands."