Forest Service begins prescribed burns in Mineral County

MINERAL COUNTY – Forest Service personnel were busy last week taking advantage of weather conditions that allowed them to perform a prescribed burn near St. Regis as part of an ongoing effort to reduce fuel loads on forested land in Mineral County.

Using a helicopter equipped with a special device as well as personnel on the ground, members of the Forest Service burned a parcel of land on steep and hazardous terrain in order to help make the site manageable if a wildfire were to start in the area. The operation, using what is known as a heli-torch that drips flame in a controlled manner in wide strips along the mountain face, was part of typical Forest Service activity during spring months before temperatures warm up and fire season begins.

The operation began early on the morning of Friday, April 17 with crew members on the ground establishing a boundary to prevent the controlled burn from escaping them and was followed by repeated passes of the helicopter. The entire operation was monitored by burn boss Teo Digiando and Fire Management Officer Jim Ward from an adjacent mountain face. Digiando said the operation was doing exactly what they wanted.

“This is classified as a type 1 burn,” Digiando said. “If it’s really nasty ground like this, it’s actually safer to use the helicopter than have people strung out along the hillside. What’s complex about this is we have power lines nearby. Anytime you have something like that nearby, like an interstate or private land or anywhere where there could be serious consequences if anything bad were to happen it makes it more complex. Mother nature can be very unpredictable sometimes even with all the technology we have.”

Digiando said the burn was behaving as predicted and was accomplishing the goal of reducing the threat posed by heavy fuel loads that can increase the potential for a wildfire to become a problem. The site was approximately 10 miles northeast of St. Regis in an area known as Miller’s Draw. As the helicopter made pass after pass burning large swaths of the site, Digiando said the location was chosen according to a number of factors.

“This is a dry site so historically, it has had naturally occurring fire often,” Digiando said. “We are trying to bring back fire to the landscape in a controlled manner. We want to get it back to where it was a hundred years ago. We want to keep the bigger trees and get rid of the smaller ones underneath that have kind of choked things out.”

According to Digiando, prescribed burning not only reduces the hazard posed by heavy fuel loads but it alos improves the overall health of the forest. By keeping the old growth and reducing the amount of smaller trees underneath, Digiando said burning would help return the forest to a more natural state.

“We want to get it back to the big trees and openings,” Digiando said. “We want to get openings where brush and grass can flourish and create feed for elk and deer. Another benefit is it makes fires easier to fight.”

Ward said the site was particularly prone to wildfire due to the amount of lightning strikes that occur in the area. He said the location had been the site of numerous fires in the past.

“We routinely get lightning fires in here,” Ward said. “Lightning tracks through here a lot.”

Ward also said one of the goals of the prescribed burn was to reduce the likelihood that a wildfire could threaten nearby power lines in the area. The operation was concluded last week and was fully extinguished as planned.