Black Hills National Forest

US Forest Service
Black Hills National Forest
1019 N. 5th Street
Custer, SD 57730
605-673-9200

Telephone for the
Hearing Impaired
605-673-9227

News Release

USDA Forest Service

Black Hills National Forest

Contact: Randy Skelton (605) 642-4622, or email us at r2 blackhills webinfo@fs.fed.us

CREWS MONITORING BURNING PILES IN THE NORTHERN HILLS

SPEARFISH, SD: January 22, 2005

Winter is the best time to burn and crews have been busy on the Northern Hills. Fire is used to reduce fire hazard by removing material from fuel breaks, hazardous fuel reduction projects, and timber sales. To reduce the risk of fire spread, implementation of this type of project only takes place when there is at least two inches of snow on the ground.

Snowfall early in January allowed crews to begin burning piles along Forest Service Road (FSR) 169. “When work began there was at least two inches of snow, and it was snowing. There was somewhere between two and twelve inches of snow in the area,” said Randy Skelton, Fire Management Officer for the Northern Hills Ranger District.

Due to the warm weather and high winds this last week, the piles that were ignited January 4 flared up. The snow pack from weeks earlier is gone, and the fuels have dried out. The flare up has caused fire to creep around the burning piles, igniting unburned piles as it goes.
Because of the drought, this type of behavior has been seen frequently the last few years. It is important to reduce fire and insect hazard by eliminating fuel buildup, so burning will resume when the weather allows. “We never light more than we can handle. We have fire suppression crews ready to keep the fire in check, not allowing it to spread into unwanted areas,” said Skelton.

Fire crews from the Northern Hills, Bearlodge, and Mystic Ranger Districts, with assistance from the Tatanka Hot Shots and South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire Suppression’s Black Hats and Bear Mountain crews, have been monitoring the burning piles to keep the spread of fire to a minimum.

As the piles burn, smoke columns will be seen. Smoke will be visible from Interstate 90 especially near the Tilford exit.

In addition to the 4700 hand piles that have been burned along Forest Service Road (FSR) 169, crews have also successfully eliminated fuels in 100 hand piles and 35 machine piles in the Steamboat Rock area of the Northern Hills Ranger District.

For more forest news, visit the Black Hills National Forest website at www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills.