This year’s fire season has passed. Now, fire managers are looking ahead to next year’s season. Setting low-intensity, “prescribed” fires is part of keeping forests healthy.
These controlled burns get rid of extra leaves and brush so that there’s less fuel to feed a wildfire. That’s what the Bureau of Indian Affairs Crow Agency plans to do over 1260 acres, or roughly 2 square miles, in the Wolf Mountains.
According to the BIA, these warm fall days after a frost are prime time for a prescribed fire. Spokesperson Jon Kohn said this past season’s lack of wildfires could make for more wildfires next summer.
“We were probably one of the slowest neighborhoods for fire in the western U.S. this summer,” said Kohn. “We had so much rain and had a very wet winter with a lot of snowpack last winter. And typically after a wet year, you have a lot of fuel on the ground. You have a lot of things that did not burn, so ground fires will move faster next year because of that.”
The BIA Crow Agency is waiting for the right weather conditions for a controlled burn either this week or next. Kohn says staff follows an 80-page set of guidelines that lay out of the conditions necessary before moving forward with a prescribed burn.
