Bridger-Teton National Forest to begin pile burning
by Bridger-Teton National Forest
November 2, 2012
The Pinedale and Big Piney Ranger Districts of the Bridger-Teton National Forest plan to begin burning slash piles throughout the area in the next several weeks to come.
Piles will be ignited at Middle Piney Lake, Sacajawea Campground, Snyder Basin, the Rim, South Cottonwood, Halverson timber sale, Bare Mountain, Kendall Guard Station, Willow Guard Station, Dutch Joe Guard Station, Fish Creek Guard Station, Battle Mountain, and Red Cliff. This list may not be comprehensive and additional areas with piles may be targeted for burning. Smoke may be visible in the vicinity of burning slash piles.
The slash piles were created as the result of both timber sales and hazardous fuels reduction projects. These projects are designed to provide greater defensible space to homes and private property in the wildland urban interface, lowering the risk of losing structures to a wildfire. Fuel reduction also creates more open areas that will help moderate fire behavior during a wildfire increasing firefighter and public safety.
Slash piles are created by thinning and removing lower limbs from trees, as well as removing dead wood and brush from the forest floor. Firefighters place the slash in tepee-shaped piles and leave them to cure before burning them. Typically piles are burned the year after they are created.
Fire management personnel plan on burning the piles during or after an area has received significant moisture to provide greater security from fire creeping away from ignited piles and to minimize heat produced by piles and effects to trees remaining in fuels treatment areas. Ignitions will cease early in the afternoon each day to allow piles and fuels to burn down prior to evening inversions and reduce smoke impacts to the area.
For more information on prescribed fire, fuels reduction projects and defensible space, visit www.tetonfires.com or call the Pinedale Ranger District at 307-367-4326.
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