November 02, 2005
A.P., Fire Season Over
BOISE, Idaho AP (Daily News link)
--" More than 8.2 million acres of state and federal lands were scorched across the country during the 2005 wildfire season, the most since the record year of 2000 and nearly double an average fire year.
"But it wasn't really a bad fire season per se," said Terry Marsha, a U.S. Department of Interior fire weather analyst in Portland, Ore. "This could be characterized as a grass fire and rangeland fire year throughout the West rather than a timber fire year."
The season-ending "National Wildland Fire Outlook" report, issued Tuesday by state and federal fire forecasters in the interagency National Predictive Services Group headquartered here, found the 56,850 fires reported in the 2005 season was 81 percent of average while the more than 12,700 square miles burned was 177 percent of average. The report covers wildfire activity on state and federal land across the United States, although a majority of the burning occurs in the western U.S. and Alaska.
In the West this season, heavy spring rains spurred record growth of grassy fuels in rangelands while a cool summer in the higher elevations kept timber stands moist.
"Often this season, we saw fires that started in the grass, then went out as soon as they got into timber," Marsha said.
More than half the acreage burned this season was in Alaska, where 4.4 million acres had burned through Oct. 30, compared to an annual average of 1.4 million but short of the historical high of 6.6 million acres in 2002. The western Great Basin region of eastern Nevada, western Utah and southern Idaho accounted for more than 1 million acres burned this year, compared to the annual average of 379,000 acres.
"Nevada as a state was way higher than normal," said Anne Jeffery of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. "There were areas in Nevada that traditionally had 500 pounds per acre of fine, grassy fuels that were showing 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of grass per acre this season."
Federal agencies are still calculating 2005 suppression costs, but the Department of Interior's running tally Tuesday was $258 million, not counting the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Figures from the Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, were not immediately available..."
--" More than 8.2 million acres of state and federal lands were scorched across the country during the 2005 wildfire season, the most since the record year of 2000 and nearly double an average fire year.
"But it wasn't really a bad fire season per se," said Terry Marsha, a U.S. Department of Interior fire weather analyst in Portland, Ore. "This could be characterized as a grass fire and rangeland fire year throughout the West rather than a timber fire year."
The season-ending "National Wildland Fire Outlook" report, issued Tuesday by state and federal fire forecasters in the interagency National Predictive Services Group headquartered here, found the 56,850 fires reported in the 2005 season was 81 percent of average while the more than 12,700 square miles burned was 177 percent of average. The report covers wildfire activity on state and federal land across the United States, although a majority of the burning occurs in the western U.S. and Alaska.
In the West this season, heavy spring rains spurred record growth of grassy fuels in rangelands while a cool summer in the higher elevations kept timber stands moist.
"Often this season, we saw fires that started in the grass, then went out as soon as they got into timber," Marsha said.
More than half the acreage burned this season was in Alaska, where 4.4 million acres had burned through Oct. 30, compared to an annual average of 1.4 million but short of the historical high of 6.6 million acres in 2002. The western Great Basin region of eastern Nevada, western Utah and southern Idaho accounted for more than 1 million acres burned this year, compared to the annual average of 379,000 acres.
"Nevada as a state was way higher than normal," said Anne Jeffery of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. "There were areas in Nevada that traditionally had 500 pounds per acre of fine, grassy fuels that were showing 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of grass per acre this season."
Federal agencies are still calculating 2005 suppression costs, but the Department of Interior's running tally Tuesday was $258 million, not counting the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Figures from the Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, were not immediately available..."
