Amid concerns of a volatile wild fire season, the U.S. Forest Service is adding four aircraft to its fire-fighting fleet, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced in Denver.
While blazes caused millions of dollars of damage in San Diego last week and other parts of the United States are gearing up for an active season, Colorado should have an average fire season, the Colorado Director of the Division of Fire Prevention and Control told the Associated Press.
But average still isn’t great. Over the past three decades, wildfire seasons have increased by 60 to 80 days and a cocktail of climate change, forest health and development have increased the destructive outcome literally in people’s backyards.
In Southwest Colorado, drought coupled with a lower snowpack than other parts of Colorado hasn’t been ideal entering fire season, but Richard Bustamante, fire management officer for the San Juan National Forest, said so far, the region has been lucky.
“Every seven to 10 days, we’ve gotten moisture, just enough to keep green up,” Bustamante said. “We will be on the edge with the potential to be active, and then moisture delays it a week. It’s sort of a good pattern.”
The Forest Service announced earlier this year it will run out of funding to battle forest fires in July, two months before the end of the fiscal year. If passed, the Obama administration’s 2015 budget proposal would set up a $954 million disaster funding pool that could be used when Forest Service and Department of Interior fire funding run dry.
The four new aircraft bring the total to 21 large air tankers and more than 100 helicopters to support more than 100,000 firefighters this season. Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet advocated for expanding the resources during fire season and applauded the announcement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also announced 94 national forest areas in 35 states will receive preventative insect and disease treatments meant to promote forest health and combat at-risk areas, where diseased trees are essentially becoming tinderboxes.
The move to treat the forest areas stems from a bill introduced by Bennet and co-sponsored by Udall last year. In Colorado alone, more than 9.6 million acres in the Arapaho & Roosevelt, Grand Mesa, Gunnison, Pike, Rio Grande, Medicine Bow-Routt, San Juan and White River national forests will receive insect and disease treatment.
Durango Fire Chief Dan Noonan says in the case of the additional aircraft, depending on the weather and size of the fire, more availability could be advantageous.
“Fires are always extinguished by boots on the ground,” Noonan says. “But aircraft can assist in getting a hit to slow the fire down, and direct it so firefighters can fight the fire.”
For the better part of this week, Durango has been under a red-flag warning, which keeps people from using their burn permits. Noonan says the National Weather Service issues red-flag warnings when lower humidity, higher temperatures and strong winds may promote a fast-moving wildfire.
As far as the upcoming season goes, he says there are always surprises.
“I’ve been in the industry long enough not to predict wildfire season,” Noonan said.
Mary Bowerman is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald. Reach her at mbowerman@durangoherald.com
