Utah is experiencing one of its driest years on record, which could make for an active wildfire season.
In the Wasatch Back, ski resorts rely on a range of strategies both to prevent fires and to stay ready in case a blaze ignites.
Those strategies includes conducting controlled burns, clearing dead trees and coordinating with other agencies across the region.
Steve Graff, Deer Valley’s vice president of mountain operations, said clearing away potential wildfire fuel is an important part of the resort’s toolbox.
Once ski season ends, snowcats switch from pushing piles of snow to moving dead trees off the mountain.
“We will get a team of sawyers on snowmobiles and a couple different snowcats, and we’ll go grab dead and dying, generally larger trees that are on the steeper parts of the mountain, because it’s much more efficient to travel over snow,” Graff said.
Deer Valley has been doing controlled burns for five years. Graff said trail crews will build dozens of piles of branches and brush all summer.
Andy Van Houten is the senior ski patrol manager at Park City Mountain. He said fuel reduction is a cyclical process of building piles in the summer and burning them in cool weather.
“You kind of want to wait till you have a little bit of snow on the ground, so the piles can’t really connect the dots, if you will,” he said. “The piles will burn just fine with a couple inches of snow on them once you ignite them, and then it helps reduce the risk of anything spreading.”
Both resorts steward massive amounts of land: Park City Mountain covers over 7,000 acres, and Deer Valley includes nearly 5,000.
Graff said Deer Valley’s East Village expansion has prompted the resort to do a forest health assessment to figure out which areas of the mountain require the most care.
At Park City Mountain, the areas where the resort borders town are especially important to protect, according to Van Houten.
“We have Thaynes Canyon that funnels right down into town; we’ve got the Town [Lift] area that funnels right into town, so those are other factors that we consider, too,” he said.
A resort’s infrastructure can work to its advantage during fire season as well.
At Deer Valley, Graff said snowmaking equipment blankets much of the mountain.
“If you think about the snowmaking system on Deer Valley, there’s thousands of hydrants all over the mountain, right?” he said. “So, it’d almost be similar to a neighborhood if they had a fire hydrant in front of every house.”
That means if a small fire sparks, mountain staff can get there quickly and try to knock it down.
On-mountain cameras help monitor for problems, too.
Both resorts also have strict rules about “hot work,” anything that could cause a spark. Deer Valley sends workers out with fire extinguishers and water backpacks.
Van Houten said a proactive approach is imperative to a safe fire season.
“While it may not be super visible to anybody out riding their bike, rest assured we are doing a lot out here to try to prevent this from happening and have plans in place if it were to happen,” he said.
That includes working closely with state and local firefighting agencies.
Statewide, officials are urging Utahns to be extra cautious this summer.
The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday, June 4, it’s implementing fire restrictions on public lands in a dozen counties, including Summit and Wasatch.
Utah’s Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands imposed Stage 1 fire restrictions within unincorporated Summit County Friday, June 5.
Firework restrictions are in effect statewide.
Deer Valley Resort is a financial supporter of KPCW.
