As in past years, the Daily Inter Lake is leaning into its wildfire coverage. Here’s the latest write-up . . .
Two large wildfires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness settled down somewhat Friday, while a burnout operation was initiated on a fire just outside the wilderness seven miles southeast of Swan Lake.
Another report — with photos — from the Daily Inter Lake on the area’s fires . . .
Wildfires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness have spread rapidly over the last couple of days, and an aerial burnout operation is planned today on a fire burning just outside the wilderness southeast of Swan Lake.
In just one day after it was detected, the Big Salmon Lake Fire went on a wind- and fuel-driven rampage Wednesday, growing to 2,000 acres. The fire started near the north shore of Big Salmon Lake, burning upslope to the northeast in heavy timber.
It has a high potential for growth toward the South Fork Flathead River, prompting multiple trail closures and efforts to protect the Salmon Forks Cabin, the Salmon Forks suspension bridge and the Little Salmon Bridge.
Today’s Daily Inter Lake has a pretty good report on the wildfire action in the Flathead Valley . . .
Flathead Valley residents got to take in a familiar summer spectacle Wednesday: Smoke columns towering over the Swan Mountain Range.
The smoke was pouring from two fires burning in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
It was the first time big smoke columns have been visible from the valley floor since summer 2007…
This week’s Hungry Horse News has an interesting write-up on forest recovery after a wildfire . . .
On a hard hot day in August, Scott Lang, Alison Lay and Mike McClellan are standing in a young forest in Glacier National Park, taking note of the trees.
The forest doesn’t look like much. The trees are short and sort of scruffy, most are no taller than five or six feet…
From today’s Missoulian (we *ahem* covered this four days ago) . . .
The smoke we’re seeing in western Montana is coming from wildfires in British Columbia
Bridget DeRosa of the National Weather Service in Missoula said that while it was hazy in the Missoula and Bitterroot valleys, visibility was still more than 10 miles on Saturday. But it was reduced to 6 miles in the Flathead Valley around Kalispell.
Starting yesterday, several folks in the North Fork reported smelling smoke. That smoke may be coming from Canada. NOAA’s early morning “Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product” map (see below) showed an extensive smoke plume drifting to the south and east from a large wildfire complex in southern British Columbia. At latest report, BC has some 318 wildfires, the bulk of them in the southern half of the province.
For more information on wildfires in Canada, keep an eye on the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System page.
The Daily Inter Lake has traditionally made a real effort to stay on top of fire season news. Today, they posted a retrospective of the biggest fire seasons of the last decade, all of which, especially the 2001 and 2003 blow-ups, had a big impact on the North Fork.
Here are the links . . .
It looks like fire season is winding down. Here’s a good overview of the situation from today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Cold rain and snow dampened Montana’s long-running fire season on Wednesday, soaking the last of the forest fires still smoldering across the state.
The Forest Service has reported no significant changes to the Ninko Creek Fire since Sunday, but they did post a new, more detailed topographic map today. According to the map legend, they’ve bumped the size of the burn up to 662 acres from the previously estimated 500.
The Ninko Creek Fire didn’t generate much in the way of news Tuesday. Apparently, it is still at about 500 acres and, with cooler, moister weather moving in, isn’t likely to do anything exciting very soon.
The Flathead National Forest posted a couple of aerial photos to the Inciweb log.
Also, here is the latest (September 29th) GeoMAC map showing the extent of the burn:
