"It's been a long haul," said Tad Kolwicz of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's Southwest Land Office in Missoula. "We've all been looking forward to a return to some normalcy. We're finally getting there."
For the first time in 8 1/2 weeks, there will be no fire restrictions in effect on forested federal, state, tribal and private lands within Missoula, Mineral, Ravalli, Granite, Powell, Anaconda, Butte-Silver Bow, Lake and the portion of Sanders County outside the Kootenai National Forest.
But Agner warned that a week of warm, sunny weather could again bump up the wildfire danger, so no one is ready to say the fire season's over. That won't come until winter is absolutely, positively here, he said.
"If we continue to have these cold fronts coming through, it is going to become an extended season-ending event," Agner said. "So it's not over, but it's looking good."
Kolwicz said residents of southwestern Montana have his gratitude for their patience during an unusually long season of fire, smoke, high temperatures and low humidity.
"The community in general needs to be recognized for their cooperation and patience in regards to restrictions, closures and fire prevention overall," he said. "We appreciated the public's understanding and support."
Agner added his thanks for the care people took to not add to the danger by being careless with fire. Most of the large wildfires in western Montana this summer were ignited by lightning, but a few were human-caused.
However, people were responsible for fewer and fewer fire starts as the season progressed, fire-prevention efforts increased and land-use restrictions tightened.
The summer's high point came the week of July 4, when the southwestern zone reported 43 human-caused fires. That number dropped to 29 the week of July 6-12, then to 22, then 18. By August, the human-caused fire starts were in the single digits: six each the weeks of Aug. 3 and 10, then one the week of Aug. 17, four the following week and three the week of Aug. 31-Sept. 6.
"The numbers fell pretty significantly," Agner said. "People really did their part to help ease the fire danger."
Regionwide, fire managers in the Northern Rockies report 893,517 acres burned by wildfires so far this fire season. All are hopeful, Agner said, that the total will not increase before winter overwhelms the fall.
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)