Forest Service insti tuting 'Wildland Fire Use'

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

A new policy in the Swan Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest will allow managers to use fire to accomplish management goals.

Enabling "Wildland Fire Use" means that when dealing with fires started by natural means and meeting an in-depth set of criteria, forest managers can let the fire burn as long as it stays in certain areas and isn't threatening structures or population centers.

The main benefits of this policy are two-fold, according to Swan Lake Ranger District Fire Management Officer Brad Gillepsie. First, the fires help promote forest health and rejuvenates some ecosystems that rely on regular forest fires for survival. The second benefit is that it reduces human exposure to the fire on the ground or in the air, thereby reducing risks and saving money.

"We use fire as just another tool in the toolbox," Gillepsie said.

Wildland fire use has been implemented on the Flathead National Forest since the 1980's, Gillepsie said, but only in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area.

Along the Swan front and in the Mission Mountain Wilderness there is a specific set of parameters that managers created to determine risk factors for naturally started fires. The Forest Service must fully suppress all man-made fires.

To create some of those parameters, Supervisory Fire Engine Operator Darren Borgen ran a series of computer models using GIS software that simulated fires in the Mission Mountain Wilderness. The modeling took into account localized fuel conditions, historical weather patterns and topography to produce a percentage chance that a fire allowed to burn under those conditions would reach the wilderness boundary before a season-ending event.

The simulation ran a total of 1,080 fires, starting in different locations and at different times. Of the 216 simulated fires that began on August 1, 107 reached the boundary before a season-ending event. Of the 216 started one month later on September 1, only nine reached the boundary.

Information like that is extrapolated to create field guides, Gillepsie said, that gives on the ground fire managers a simple guide with lots of science behind it.

"We're able to look at this matrix and see when to suppress," he said.

Gillepsie emphasized that the only areas where this policy is in effect are the Mission Mountain Wilderness and the Swan front. Any fires in the Crane Mountain area of the upper Mission Mountains would be suppressed because of proximity to population centers.

Gillepsie also notes that when managing a fire, whether it's monitoring or suppressing, once the decision is made to contain or suppress the fire, the Forest Service cannot revert to "Wildland Fire Use" on that incident.

And regardless, the Swan front is not particularly prone to high numbers of fire starts anyway, Gillepsie said. The area averages about two per year.