Wenatchee Symposium Tackles Rising Wildfire Risks And Response

As North Central Washington heads into wildfire season, we are facing a threat of another devastating summer, according to weather and fire behavior experts.  The region is considered one of the most wildfire-prone areas of the country every year and for a variety of factors.

On June 25th, Our Valley, Our Future (OVOF) conducted a Wildfire Symposium at Wenatchee Valley College.  OVOF coordinator Steve Maher said about 100 people were in attendance and heard from experts and a panel discussion on how the current wildfire threats have evolved for over a century and how residents of NCW are impacted by fires and smoke.  Attendees heard what should be done to improve wildfire readiness and what local communities can do do reduce harmful impacts.

Get our free mobile app

On a recent segment of the Agenda Program on KPQ, Maher shared some of the key takeaways from the symposium.

Why Are We Constantly Under The Threat of Wildfires?

Dr. Paul Hessburg, a senior research ecologist and professor at the University Washington attributes the annual wildfire threat to several factors.  He is also intimate with this region as a longtime resident of the Wenatchee Valley.

Hessburg described a century and a half of suppressing wildfire has paradoxically resulted in the landscape that is more vulnerable to wildfire and the devastating  Megafires that have hit the area.  The professor says years of trying to stop wildfires has actually undone the efforts of indigenous peoples who managed the forest and shrub-steppe by igniting fires intentionally to improve forest health.  The condition of the landscape as a result of those cultural fires Hessburg explained,  was thinned forests that were less susceptible to wildfire;  healthier and with fewer bug infestations,  and not as densely covered with trees after commercial logging practices were developed.

What does Dr. Hessburg suggest we do to mitigate the threat?;

• Increase the number of prescribed burns to reduce fuel loads
• Limit construction in wildfire-prone areas
• Adopt uniform building codes for wildfire urban interface communities
• Increase the number of roads so residents can escape the threat of a fire
• Encourage livestock grazing to thin vegetation in shrub-steppe areas near homes

What Can Local Fire Resources Handle?

Wenatchee Valley Fire Department Chief Brian Brett agreed that more resilient landscape and fire-adapted communities are key to combatting wildfires but his agency is designed to fight house fires and can only handle the initial attack on a brush or wildfire.  Outside resources have to do the heavy lifting and agencies like the Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources and Bureau of Land Management are key partners.  USFS, DNR and BLM also have the significant amount of aircraft that are needed to try and snuff out a wildfire before it grows too large.

Are Wildfires Larger or More Frequent?

Former Washington State Public Lands Commissioner Hillary Franz shared statistics that show an increase in the number of wildfires in the state since 2016 but the amount of acreage burned has dropped.  Franz credits the faster response times with aircraft, the hundreds of millions of dollars for wildfire response and community efforts to reduce the amount of dangerous vegetation around homes.

Wildfires are almost always human-caused, 90% and Franz showed study results that show 99% of properties in Wenatchee, 98% of Chelan properties and 100% of the property in Leavenworth is at risk from wildfires in the next 30 years.

No Escaping the Harmful Effects of Wildfire Smoke

Whether your property is threatened by a wildfire, almost everyone can be subject to unhealthy air quality caused by fires, even a great distance away.

Elizabeth Walker is an air quality consultant and warns the so-called 'smoke season" could be two to three times worse in the next 25 years.  Walkers told the audience "We are the experiment living through this" since the long term effects are not clear.  She noted that the top three counties for the number of smoke days are in NCW; Douglas, Okanogan and Chelan.

You can read the full synopsis from the symposium's findings on the Our Valley, Our Future website.