It’s too early to know if this winter’s unusually warm weather will cause more fires than usual this summer, but officials are urging Wyomingites to be mindful of fire during dangerous dry spells.
Lawrence Lujan, public information officer for the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain regional office, said “chainsaws, dragging trailer safety chains, carelessly tossed cigarettes, fireworks, abandoned campfires and the discharge of firearms” can all contribute to human-caused forest fires.
“We are seeing hot, dry and windy conditions and with those conditions, an increase in human-caused sparks,” Lujan said. “So we’re asking people to be vigilant with anything that could start a fire.”
The U.S. Forest Service publishes a monthly report highlighting areas of high fire potential across the country. According to this month’s significant wild land fire outlook, only northeast Wyoming falls in an area of above normal fire potential, but the rest of the state could still ignite under the right conditions.
A more detailed region-specific map will be available next week.
Aaron Voos, U.S. Forest Service media contact for Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin Grassland, said locally, especially around Pole Mountain and Vedauwoo, human-caused fires are a top concern.
“We have had some abandoned campfires lately,” Voos said. “There is good potential for fire danger before things green-up.”
As for fire danger this summer, it’s too early to tell.
“There’s still snow at higher elevations,” Voos said. “We’ll have to see how things go over the next month or two.”
Albany County Fire Warden Cyrus Rahman said there are no clear indicators of how the summer will go. Last year’s wet spring resulted in a lot of grassy fuel, but also groundwater, which could keep the state from getting too dry.
“We can really only guess at this point,” he said. “It’s a very different thing every year. The grass situation can change in less than 24 hours. We can get lucky and nothing will happen or we can get a lightning strike during a dry period. It’s really hard to predict.”
