This year’s wildfire season in Washington is one of its worst on record. Nearly 900,000 acres have burned as of early September, including the Spokane fires that devastated entire neighborhoods. All of this comes as the state faces an unprecedented fourth consecutive year of drought.
But there have been worse years for fire in Washington. And state officials have worked to improve their response.
KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp spoke with the head of the state Department of Natural Resources and his chief forester to learn more about lessons learned from increasingly severe wildfires.
Hear the full interview by clicking ''Listen" above.
Interview Highlights
On the financial costs of fighting wildfires
Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove: This season isn't over yet, so we won't know the cost. But this is shaping up to be an expensive season. It's very expensive to put out wildfires. It's even more expensive to rebuild communities afterwards. What's the most cost-effective approach is to invest in preparedness, to invest in prevention. You know, we've had almost 1,500 fires start this year; 95% of those we keep under 10 acres. That's because we've invested in preparing to have a rapid initial attack, and those are the investments that this state needs to be making to ensure that we bend that cost curve down, so we aren't having to spend hundreds of millions.
State Forester George Geissler: Many of these fires go through a million, a million and a half dollars per day that they're active. And then also there's just significant investment that is being made in the community themselves. The success in Spokane was the ability to evacuate. So the idea of having a plan on how to evacuate that large of a number of people in such a short period of time-it literally takes 1000s of dollars just to go through all of the work that's necessary to prepare a community for the fire that it's inevitably going to occur. But then also there's the preparing of the homes, making sure that firefighters can actually defend their home safely. So again, that takes money, it takes time, and it also takes personal commitment of the landowners to do it.
On prevention and the state DNR’s #1 ask to state legislators for next session
Upthegrove: We need to make our wildfire prevention and preparedness funding permanent, and not have it be something that is subject to appropriation every year. We know this problem isn't going away, and we need to have that funding grow with the need. Otherwise, we're going to be paying a lot more in the long run on fire suppression costs, if not paying in lives and having to rebuild communities like Spokane.
It’s no longer fire seasons – they last all year
Geissler: We no longer call it a fire season, actually. A few years ago, nationally, we changed it to a fire year. Here in Washington, we have responded to fires in all 12 months, which was unheard of in past decades. I now lovingly say that we have a summer fire season here, a fall and a spring (season,) but it is a wildfire year.
On changes the state has made in recent years to prepare for these more intense, more dangerous, and longer fire seasons.
Upthegrove: We are building on the progress that's previously been made with strategies that work. We are striving to invest more in the thinnings and fuels reduction, and even prescribe burns on the landscapes that are at high risk in order to protect critical assets and population centers. We know that work matters. We see it slow the spread of fire, make it easier for firefighters to protect homes and make communities more resilient. We are continuing to invest in our workforce, building a I think the world class team of professional firefighters at the State Department of Natural Resources, second to none, and getting them trained and equipped, we're entering into more and more mutual aid agreements with other states in advance of fire season. We are training up National Guard troops even before we know whether we need them, and we're investing in local fire departments' equipment and training, and obviously we then position those assets and resources strategically around the state. We're continuing to invest in detection equipment, cameras that can detect smoke and fire faster than the human eye.
