Tagged: wildfires

The author of the 2009 bestseller, “The Big Burn,” says the famous 1910 fire that scored millions of acres in the Northwest still holds relevance for us today.

There weren’t always public lands in America, and there was a time when the Forest Service was on the chopping block in Congress. The future of both was impacted by the famous 1910 fire in north Idaho, western Montana, and eastern Washington.

YAKIMA, Wash. — A wildfire has closed U.S. Highway 97 between Goldendale and Toppenish and is threatening about 30 homes.

SEATTLE — The National Weather Service is warning of high wildfire danger over most of Washington's Cascades and Olympics.

PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. — Fire crews have contained a wildfire that burned about 30 acres near Port Townsend.

LEAVENWORTH, Wash. – About 90 firefighters are working to contain a 100-acre blaze that is burning in steep terrain northeast of Leavenworth and has forced the closure of Highway 2.

In the last ten years, the federal government and rural landowners have spent increasing sums of money thinning spindly trees and removing underbrush. The aim is to reduce risk from wildfire.

A new study by the Forest Service finds that tree stands need to be "intensively" thinned for that strategy to be effective.

Study co-author David Peterson of the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Seattle says a dense tinderbox forest before thinning could have more than a 1,000 trees per acre.

The southern part of the U.S. – Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California – will likely have significant wildfires this year. Already fire crews are battling more than a dozen fires just in Texas. But here in the Northwest, the fire outlook is much rosier.