Tag Archives: wildfires

Larry Wilson: Worrying about weather, floods and fires

This week, Larry talks about folk’s penchant to worry about the weather . . .

Apparently we humans have an inbred need to worry about something all of the time. In the first week of January, I heard several people comment that they were worried that if it didn’t snow soon, we would have a really bad fire season next summer.

Now that we have had a week of fairly heavy snowfall (about two feet on Trail Creek, one foot in town), two people have commented that if this keeps up for two weeks, we’re likely to have spring floods.

Personally, I try not to worry about things that I can’t change or affect in any way – like the weather. Besides, a heavy snowpack does not mean there will be spring floods. Look at last winter. Record snowfall in the mountains. In many places, over 200 percent of normal. Despite the snow, we did not have severe flooding.

Same thing with fires. Many an open winter has been followed by a summer with few fires. Spring flooding and a severe fire season are usually the result of spring weather, not what happened in the previous winter.

Continue reading . . .

Bugs, fire, politics to transform western Montana forests

Here’s a pretty good discussion of the impacts on Montana’s forests over the next 50 years or so. Interestingly, some of the changes may actually restore earlier, healthier conditions . . .

Three things will combine to radically transform Montana forests in the next 50 years: bugs, fire and politics.

Mountain pine beetles have killed millions of acres of lodgepole pine trees. Those dead stands, combined with a progressively drier climate, will likely burn in wilder, more intense fashion. The biological aftermath should bring a wider mix of tree species, open areas and wildlife habitat, according to new computer models.

How humans tinker with that progression remains a wildcard…

Continue reading . . .

Western Montana counties, including Flathead, to rescind Stage I fire restrictions

From today’s Missoulian . . .

Federal and state wildland fire agencies will rescind Stage I fire restrictions on Wednesday throughout much of western Montana.

Included in the order are Flathead, Lake, Mineral, Sanders, Missoula, Powell, Ravalli, Granite, Deer Lodge and Silver Bow counties.

Restrictions will remain in effect on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

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Larry Wilson: Close call yet on fire danger

In his column this week, Larry Wilson discusses the fire season and getting ready for colder weather . . .

A few weeks ago, I wrote that it looked like there would not be much of a fire season on the North Fork. Like all politicians and most columnists, I did add a disclaimer – unless we have unusually dry weather. So far I am sticking with my original opinion. No big fire season on the North Fork in 2011. However, I’m going to expand on my disclaimer.

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Cool, damp weather helps slow fires

From the Daily Inter Lake . . .

Recent rains, higher humidities and lower temperatures have put a damper on fires still burning in Northwest Montana.

About a half inch of rain was recorded Wednesday at Spotted Bear and the Big Prairie Ranger station in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, where the 4,100-acre Big Salmon Lake Fire and the 5,100-acre Hammer Creek Fire have been burning for the last few weeks…

There was a similar effect on the South Fork Lost Creek Fire, which has burned 1,681 acres just outside the wilderness about seven miles south of Swan Lake…

Continue reading . . .

Fire season ‘hitting peak right now’ in Montana, expert says

The Missoulian posted this item late yesterday. I’d take it with a grain of salt, especially the “extended summer” bit . . .

Although September is but a week away and students are returning to school, summer weather and wildfire season in Montana is far from over.

In fact, “we are hitting our peak right now,” said Brian Henry, a fire weather forecaster and meteorologist at the Northern Rockies Coordination Center.

“The next two weeks will be the most active part of our season and computer models tell us we will have an extended summer into September, and the fire season will likely linger before going to sleep on us.”

Continue reading . . .

“If there’s a message, it’s dry enough for things to burn.”

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…

Continue reading . . .

New USFS study shows beetle-killed trees ignite faster

Here’s official support, with actual numbers, for something that seems intuitively obvious . . .

The red needles of a tree killed in a mountain pine beetle attack can ignite up to three times faster than the green needles of a healthy tree, new research into the pine beetle epidemic has found.

The findings by U.S. Forest Service ecologist Matt Jolly are being used by fellow ecologist Russ Parsons to develop a new model that will eventually aid firefighters who battle blazes in the tens of millions of acres from Canada to Colorado where forest canopies have turned from green to red from the beetle outbreak.

Continue reading . . .

Study says beetle kills may not elevate fire hazard

Oh, boy. This item posted to today’s Flathead Beacon is going to trigger some debate and, one hopes, further investigation . . .

Swaths of forests killed by mountain pine beetles may not be as prone to massive fires as many previously assumed, a conclusion drawn by researchers from the University of Wisconsin and Yellowstone National Park.

Read the full article . . .