Biggest concern now focuses on northeast part of state
Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2005 12:00 am
WHITNEY ROYSTER
Star-Tribune environmental reporter
Though it's still too early to predict how fire season will shape up in Wyoming, the state forester said movement is afoot to "plan for the worst, and hope for the best."
Bill Crapser said the biggest concern right now is the northern half of the state - more specifically, the northeast.
"We do have some concerns up there," he said. That area has been the driest of any portion of the state, with snowpack levels a dismal 54 percent of average in the Belle Fourche River drainage.
Still, he said the outlook may change.
"Last year with the drought, we were predicting it was going to be a barnstorm of a fire season, and it rained all summer," he said.
But the state is contracting a helicopter this summer for use on fires throughout the state, and is hiring four people for a "helitack" crew as seasonal state employees.
Those people, based in Casper, will be available to help with fires, in addition to people in regional fire stations who will be on the state's roster as trained for helicopter response.
"We're trying to make it a state and county resource," he said.
There are still problems with air tankers, Crapser said.
Last year, 33 tankers made by Hawkins and Power Aviation of Greybull were grounded by the U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department after the tankers were determined to be dangerous. Three tankers crashed between 1994 and 2002, killing seven crew members.
"If we have a severe fire season, we will still have some problems with air tanker availability," Crapser said.
Now, though, the state is working with local firefighters on additional training for the upcoming season, and inmates at the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton and Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle are being trained for fire response.
"We're just trying to plan for a bad fire season," Crapser said.
In the Black Hills National Forest in northeast Wyoming and western South Dakota, fire crews already put out one fire this year about three weeks ago in South Dakota.
The six-acre fire, called the "Spokane Fire," sparked from roadside lightning on the north side of Custer State Park on the Iron Mountain Road, spokesman Frank Carroll said.
"Measurements that tell us how dry things are are higher than they have ever been in our recorded weather history," Carroll said. "That fire almost escaped initial attack."
Forest officials are partnering again with local firefighters in a coordinated effort to attack blazes, Carroll said, with Black Hawk helicopters and air tankers on call from the state of South Dakota and some air resources from Wyoming.
Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.