Though the West has suffered intense wildfires the past few years, the situation this fire season in North Idaho has proven to be not as bad as originally predicted.
As Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees prepared for fire season in North Idaho, they were on high alert because of expected high temperatures and low precipitation. But more precipitation and cooler temperatures throughout the summer abated those concerns, said Suzanne Endsley, BLM’s public affairs officer.
“In early June, a lot of fire managers, regardless of what lands they managed, everybody kind of went on high alert because it was starting to look like a déjà vu of our 2015 fire season,” she said. “So we were expressing a lot of concern to users of our lands and just being prepared for a harsh fire season.”
Endsley said during the 2015 fire season, fires burned thousands of acres near Couer d’Alene. Normally, she said fires in the area burn less than a thousand acres, she said. That spike aligns with findings of research by Idaho State University’s geographic information system department chair Keith Weber. A paper from Weber in 2016 showed fires increased in size and frequency on average in recent years, with a few outlier years in the early 2000s.
The 2015 fire season — which BLM employees worried this summer would have been similar to — also affected the University of Idaho community. UI Extension Professor of Forestry Randall Brooks said his son was on a fire crew that ended up with three members dead in Twisp, Wash. that summer. After the season ended, Brooks said his son asked if he could conduct research to understand how wildland firefighters’ jobs could be safer.
Brooks has since worked with graduate student Callie Collins to monitor the health of firefighters over throughout fire seasons to find problem areas. Based on data from a survey and other sources, Brooks and Collins have found fatigue, dehydration and lack of proper nutrition may have strong impacts on the ability of firefighters to stay alert and limit mistakes.
“What we found in the sleep section of our research, we saw that (the firefighters) definitely slept less while on fire (duty) than off fire (duty), but their sleep quality was actually better,” Collins said. “Another really big thing we found with sleep was that as the fire season went on, they became fatigued more often and more quickly.”
Endsley said community safety is a primary concern during wildfire season, but local economies can suffer as well. The recreation and tourism economies in north Idaho are also effected by wildfires because smoke in the air causes a health hazard, Endsley said.
While many people may consider wildfires to be negative, UI professor Brooks said it can be helpful in certain situations.
“Fire is a way of cleaning up the forest, so to speak,” Brooks said. “It burns things up (and) recycles nutrients. We don’t like fire because it burns our houses down, but fire is actually a very effective management tool.”
To stay safe during fire season, BLM spokesperson Endsley recommends community members create a buffer zone, stay aware of wildfires burning nearby and pay attention to evacuation rules for their area. At this point in the season, she said people should be careful when setting and putting out campfires. She said cooler evening and morning temperatures lull campers into a false sense of security.
“Always make sure (fires) are completely dead out and that it’s cold to the touch,” Endsley said. “The reason we encourage that is that even if you accidentally start a wildfire because of your campfire or what have you, you’re liable potentially for that cost of suppression (of the wildfire).”
Lex Miller can be reached at [email protected]