By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Director of Public Lands Hilary Franz this week joined the Todd Ortloff Show to discuss her agency’s changing policies around wildfire response as fires become more prevalent and damaging during these longer, hotter summer seasons.
“Last year, for the first time in recorded history, we had more fires west of the Cascades than east of the Cascades. So, it shows that our forests on the west side are also changing. We’re seeing drought year after year that is impacting our forests. They’re drying out. We’re seeing fires like we saw in Neah Bay, three fires in Thanksgiving week just two years ago. Last year we had the Margarita Fire and Quinault Nation in July. And so, it’s clear that our forests on the west side are now struggling, and that we’ve got to get to work.”
Franz said when she took office in 2017 our state had 8 Viet Nam-era helicopters and just 40 full time firefighters to battle wildfires. Today, she said Washington has over 40 air resources positioned around the state, with the intention being able to get resources to any fire, no matter where it is, within 30 minutes.
“We now have over 150 full-time firefighters. We have increased our dozer operations and other critical equipment on the ground. We’ve also invested in the training of our local firefighters so that we have more of our local firefighters that are trained on how to do wildland firefighting. And also, we’ve been able, through a surplus grant program, to get more of our brush trucks and fire trucks out to those rural fire districts that often times had very little resources and capacity.”
Franz says the result of these new strategies has been significant. She says in the last two years our firefighters have been able to keep 95% of our fires to less than 10 acres.
“And we’ve actually been able, the last two years in a row, we’ve been able to keep the number of acres burned down to below 200,000. We haven’t seen that kind of result since 2010, 2011.”
Franz said the changing strategies of the past several are generating improved results, but she pointed out that 95% of our wildfires are started by humans.
“We are urgently pleading with people to please take every step to prevent the fire starting in the first place, so that way we can all have a great summer and a safe summer, and our firefighters and our communities can be safe.”