Southwestern Montana Fire Update

Stage 2 Fire Restrictions for Gallatin National Forest, Yellowstone Owl Fire Surges with Winds

By David Nolt, 7-25-07

Stage 2 fire restrictions went into place in the Gallatin National Forest at noon today, while the largest fire in Yellowstone National Park, the Owl Fire, quadrupled in size due to high winds on Monday.

Though there are no significant fires currently burning in the Gallatin National Forest, Maryanne Baumberger of the Bozeman Ranger District says the restriction went into place due to high fire danger, the type of management resources available and the high amount of human activity in the forest.

Yellowstone National Park has some fire restrictions in place, though they are not as restrictive as National Forest restrictions due to the area’s high elevation and type of public use. Nonetheless, Yellowstone has some of the driest conditions in the state with heavy fuels holding moisture contents in the low teens and single digits, while the Energy Release Component for fire potential continually hovers in the 90th percentile.

“It’s just really, really, really dry,” Yellowstone National Park Spokesman Al Nash explains.

There have been 12 fires in the park this season, something Nash says is not out of the ordinary at this point in the season. Four were human-caused fires and eight were caused by lightning. The lightning-caused Owl Fire is burning in a mature Lodgepole pine and spruce/fir forest in the northwest corner of the park, east of U.S. Highway 191. Stormy winds caused the fire to grow from 300 acres to 1,200 in just a few hours on Monday afternoon. Cooler temperatures and higher humidity is helping fire crews make progress on the fire today. This morning a Type 2 Incident Management team took over the fire.

Nash says, though he is hesitant to make comparisons to the Yellowstone fires of 1988—which burned nearly 800,000 acres in the park, following a period of heavy fire suppression—the current conditions have the potential for big fires.

“It’s an extremely dry year, and the conditions create significant fire potential and very significant fire behavior for any fire that does occur,” Nash says. “We certainly have the potential for a very significant fire season in the Greater Yellowstone Area.”

Meanwhile, Stage 2 fire restrictions in the Gallatin National Forest now prohibit “building maintaining, attending, or using a fire or campfire; smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable materials; operating any internal combustion engine; welding, or operating acetylene or other torch with open flames; using an explosive or operating motorized vehicles off designated roads and trails.” The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness is in Stage 1 restrictions.

Snowmelt runoff was three weeks early in most parts of southwestern Montana this spring, making for a longer, drier fire season.

Baumberger is urging the public to use extreme caution when recreating.

“Think about what you’re doing and if that could start a fire,” Baumberger says.

For more information on fires in the Gallatin National Forest click here, and for information on fires in Yellowstone National Park click here.

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