Payette National Forest

A Fire Season in Review
One of the lessons this wildfire season has taught me is to expect the unexpected. Spring and summer came early this year, by almost a month.  Our fire season began earlier than expected with our first fire on the Forest April 27.  Heightened fire activity was going strong to the south of us in Nevada and Utah.  We sent many of our firefighters to help them, thinking we still had some time before our season would start.  We did not see our first significant rain until September 23 with hot, dry weather to follow that rain. Our fires were more resistant to control than expected, and many people came to the Payette NF and worked longer and harder than expected to help deal with our large fires.
A typical Initial Attack fire would use a handful of people, some bucket work, and (on a really difficult one) one to two loads of retardant.  To suppress many of our fires this year, we had to staff them with up to 80 people, helicopters, and air tankers in order to keep them small.  With a shortage of resources to staff all our fires at this level, we had to prioritize and a few escaped our management efforts to become large fires.

To all of you, my sincere thanks to deal with the unexpected.
The wildfire job looms too large for any of us to cope with, much less succeed at, alone. Thank you to the elected officials, administrators, agencies, private landowners and fire departments whose cooperative spirit made this possible. You have made the difference.

Thank you to the men and women who have helped us manage nature's elemental force, fire.  We had to staff the fires with more people and air power than normal.  You have done your work efficiently, effectively, tirelessly, and most of all safely.  No fire is worth the risk to people’s lives.  With the erratic fire behavior and record setting temperatures, keeping people safe was my first priority.   

Thank you to the people in harm's way in Burgdorf, Secesh, Warren, residents in the South Fork of the Salmon River and Frank Church Wilderness, Yellow Pine, Copenhaver, Mackey Bar, Badley Ranch, Big Creek, Indian Valley, and Weiser. We appreciate the positive feedback we have gotten from several of you for the assistance the firefighters gave. You have shown genuine appreciation to those who protected lives and property. You helped us through this difficult fire season. In those rare instances where homes and structures were lost, we all share a sense of loss and frustration.

Thank you to the reporters and photographers who have helped tell this fire season's stories. You have kept people informed with breaking news from individual fires as well as providing in-depth discussions of strategy, climate and weather.

Thank you to the people who live, work and play on the Payette National Forest and in the surrounding area. You have endured days and nights of smoke-filled valleys. You have complied with the inconvenience of restrictions and closures. You have been patient as fire suppression strategy and tactics evolved with changing conditions.
Together, we now understand that we may face these experiences again in the future.  We will never eliminate fire.  We will need to work together even closer.  Several areas the Forest has identified to address prior to next years fires season are to:

1. Work with our partners to coordinate structure protection responsibilities.
2. Work on fire restrictions to improve their effectiveness and intention without causing adverse impacts to land owners, business owners and recreating public.
3. Work together on how we manage fuels and fire on the landscape.  Fire is capable of returning to the South Fork in multiple years.  Areas that burned in 1994  reburned in 2007 with, in some cases, more damaging effects. 
4. Work with the public and our cooperators regarding the role of fire in this area.  How do we allow fire to play a role in the ecosystem without being quite as impactive to the public as this past fire year?
5. Work on maintaining current agreements and developing new agreements where they don’t exist now for more efficient operations in the future.

And I know there are many more.

As we continue to experience warmer climates, drier fuels, more erratic fire behavior and increasing home construction in the wildland-urban interface, I believe we will need to continue to make progress in reducing wildfire threats to communities. We have seen numerous examples, such as the work around Secesh, and west of Yellow Pine,  where fuel treatments significantly moderated fire behavior, reducing the risk to firefighters and increasing the effectiveness of our fire suppression efforts. But to keep pace with the changing conditions, we need to continue to treat more areas every year on both private and public lands.

Again, thank you for dealing with the unexpected and for being a part of making the Payette National Forest, and surrounding area, a wonderful place to work, live, and recreate. 

US Forest Service - Payette National Forest
Last Modified: Tuesday, 11 March 2008 at 10:59:56 EDT