WA Looks Back On 2021 Fire Season And Prepares For The Next

SEATTLE — With spring underway and warmer, drier months fast approaching, fire crews across Washington are already preparing for the start of another wildfire season. The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (NWCC) released its annual fire report earlier this month, detailing last year's fire impacts in Washington and Oregon, where the number of acres burned continued to outpace the average.

Overall, last year's 1,872 wildfires impacted more than 674,000 acres across the Evergreen State. While more fires were reported than the year before, the number of acres burned was down from 842,328 reported in 2020 and well below the gargantuan 1.1 million acres burned in 2015. Nearly four dozen of Washington's 2021 wildfires were classified as large.

However, the NWCC notes the acreage burned last year remained 125 percent above the 10-year average. A whopping 88 percent of last year's fires were classified as human-caused, compared to 12 percent ignited by lightning.

Fires started by lightning claimed the most acres, including the largest single incident in Washington last year. The Schneider Springs fire burned more than 107,000 acres in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest after igniting in early August. The NWCC's report also examined temperature and climate trends, detailing impacts from the historic June heatwave and persistent hot and dry weather through July.

During peak fire activity, more than 8,600 firefighters and support crews were fighting wildfires across the Northwest.

In an op-ed published earlier this year in The Spokesman-Review, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz noted that last year's fire season started in April, when firefighters were already facing an unprecedented number of wildfires early in the season. The commissioner reiterated the importance of Washington moving forward with meeting its goal of restoring 1.25 million acres of forest, with an estimated 363,000 acres treated since 2017.

During the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers approved $500 million to boost Washington's wildfire response, which provides funding for additional firefighters and resources to speed up forest restoration efforts.

Starting on April 1, state agencies will work with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to do prescribed burns on 250 acres in northern Okanogan County, aiming to reduce the fuels available for wildfires to grow in the area and boost overall forest health.

"The launch of our prescribed fire program marks a significant step forward in accomplishing our bold goals for restoring the health of Washington's forests — and we're bringing this vision to life through proactive collaboration and partnership," Franz said Friday. "Forest health treatments, including selective forest thinning and prescribed burning, are the necessary steps to combat our wildfire and forest health crisis."

>> Read the complete NWCC report and learn more about the upcoming prescribed burns online.