Feds forecast tough fire season ahead

Sequester cuts impact firefighting resources

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Federal officials warn that significant wildland fire potential exists across most of the West for the 2013 fire season, including portions of Montana. And recent federal budget cuts won’t make firefighting efforts any easier.

During a visit to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, on May 13, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell described collaborative programs between federal, state, local and tribal governments while urging homeowners and local communities to take proactive steps to protect their properties.

They noted that 9.3 million acres of private, state and federal land, along with 4,400 structures, burned across the U.S. last year — the third highest number of acres burned since 1960. They also described federal firefighting assets — more than 13,000 firefighters, more than 1,600 engines, 53 air tankers and two water-scooping aircraft, and hundreds of helicopters.

But federal budget cuts may hamper firefighting efforts, especially the recent 5 percent across-the-board sequester. That translated into 500 fewer seasonal and permanent firefighters, Vilsack said. He’s asked that $400 million in funding for other forest programs be transferred to firefighting.

According to the Fire Center’s May 1 forecast, cooler and wetter weather across the Pacific Northwest will delay the onset of this year’s fire season. But above-normal wildland fire potential is expected by July and August across portions of southwestern Montana and northern Idaho.

“The snow year ended with snowpack near normal in all basins,” the center’s report said. “The late recovery is more a result of cool conditions in late April that delayed the onset of melt than the addition of late season snow. This can be seen in departure from normal precipitation for the last 60 days, which shows significant deficits across much of western Montana, especially southwest Montana, where severe drought conditions are expanding northward and westward.”

The center forecast that the Montana fire season will begin in south-central and southeastern Montana in late June and gradually transition westward with the drying and curing of fuels.

“The core of the fire season across western Montana and northern Idaho should begin in mid- to late-July and hit its stride in August,” the report said.

Montana experienced its worst fire season in more than a century last year, with 1.1 million acres burned. More than half of 2,116 fires in 2012 were human-caused, according to figures from the Northern Rockies Coordination Center. Most of those burned acres were within the Dahl, Ash Creek and Rosebud Complex fires in Eastern Montana.

From 2002 through 2011, Montana averaged 1,648 fires and 338,252 burned acres. Last year’s unusual fire season cost taxpayers $113 million, of which $50 million came from the state.

Firefighting was one reason Montana Gov. Steve Bullock gave May 13 for vetoing 71 bills and cutting about $150 million from the legislature’s budget. Bullock said he wanted a $300 million surplus to handle unforeseen circumstances — including firefighting.

Most of Northwest Montana’s wildfires last year were in designated wilderness. Of the 49 wildfires and 23,200 acres that burned in the Flathead National Forest last year, 24 of the fires and 17,700 of the acres were on the Spotted Bear Ranger District.

Other large local wildfires included the Condon Fire in the Swan Valley near Holland Lake and the West Garceau Fire near Big Arm in Lake County. While most Northwest Montana wildfires were lightning-caused, the West Garceau Fire was under investigation.

A late-season fire in Glacier National Park closed the popular Avalanche Lake Trail. The fire was discovered Sept. 1 on the east slopes of Mount Brown. Smokejumpers and helicopters were dispatched to the fire, and the trail reopened on Sept. 7.