Cooler temperatures and moisture — maybe even snow — make prescribed burns safer.
“You already see land managers taking advantage of that,” Alpine Forestry co-owner David Telian told KPCW. “For instance, the Forest Service has already started burning out east of here in the Mirror Lake Highway area, and they're going to continue for a while.”
He and others in the industry say burning piles of limbs and overgrowth in the forest helps fight fires before they start. That’s because it reduces available fuel.
Telian’s company expects to start burning slash piles on Iron Mountain above the Aspen Springs neighborhood and in Thaynes Canyon this month.
“We also have a smattering of smaller projects around the community and neighborhoods like Pinebrook and Summit Park,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Summit County Council approved a $931,000 contract for fire mitigation on Forest Service land east of Oakley. The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act is fully funding the decade-long project.
The money will pay Summit Forests, Inc., to help thin the forest around the upper Weber River and Smith and Morehouse Reservoir.
“We’re going to be focusing on removing those standing dead, diseased trees, leaving healthy clumps between tree stands,” Summit County Resource and Restoration Manager Billy Kurek told the council. “So that if a fire were to move through this space, it would not necessarily have that extreme amount of energy to have a catastrophic effect [on] this landscape.”
There’s greater urgency for wildfire mitigation thanks to climate change. Warmer average temperatures lead to regional drought and, Telian said, give invasive insects more time to eat away at fir trees.
“The solution is colder, wetter winters, but that's far out of our control, right?” he said.
Fire officials ask residents not to report smoke from prescribed burns. The Forest Service often announces firing operations on social media, and Alpine Forestry works with and notifies nearby homeowners associations.
The burn window in Summit County could close in November or December, depending on how much snow falls.
Summit County and Alpine Forestry are financial supporters of KPCW.
