This week’s Hungry Horse News has an interesting write-up on forest recovery after a wildfire . . .
On a hard hot day in August, Scott Lang, Alison Lay and Mike McClellan are standing in a young forest in Glacier National Park, taking note of the trees.
The forest doesn’t look like much. The trees are short and sort of scruffy, most are no taller than five or six feet…
From today’s Missoulian (we *ahem* covered this four days ago) . . .
The smoke we’re seeing in western Montana is coming from wildfires in British Columbia
Bridget DeRosa of the National Weather Service in Missoula said that while it was hazy in the Missoula and Bitterroot valleys, visibility was still more than 10 miles on Saturday. But it was reduced to 6 miles in the Flathead Valley around Kalispell.
Since the fire situation in Canada often affects the North Fork, the “Wildfire Information” page has been updated to add a collection of links to Canadian wildfire maps and information. They include national coverage, as well as links specific to British Columbia and Alberta.
Starting yesterday, several folks in the North Fork reported smelling smoke. That smoke may be coming from Canada. NOAA’s early morning “Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product” map (see below) showed an extensive smoke plume drifting to the south and east from a large wildfire complex in southern British Columbia. At latest report, BC has some 318 wildfires, the bulk of them in the southern half of the province.
For more information on wildfires in Canada, keep an eye on the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System page.
The Daily Inter Lake has traditionally made a real effort to stay on top of fire season news. Today, they posted a retrospective of the biggest fire seasons of the last decade, all of which, especially the 2001 and 2003 blow-ups, had a big impact on the North Fork.
Here are the links . . .
It looks like fire season is winding down. Here’s a good overview of the situation from today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Cold rain and snow dampened Montana’s long-running fire season on Wednesday, soaking the last of the forest fires still smoldering across the state.
The Forest Service has reported no significant changes to the Ninko Creek Fire since Sunday, but they did post a new, more detailed topographic map today. According to the map legend, they’ve bumped the size of the burn up to 662 acres from the previously estimated 500.
The Ninko Creek Fire didn’t generate much in the way of news Tuesday. Apparently, it is still at about 500 acres and, with cooler, moister weather moving in, isn’t likely to do anything exciting very soon.
The Flathead National Forest posted a couple of aerial photos to the Inciweb log.
Also, here is the latest (September 29th) GeoMAC map showing the extent of the burn:
According to this morning’s InciWeb update, the Ninko Creek Fire is about 500 acres in size. From the “remarks” section of the report . . .
The west flank is holding well. The center of the fire is burning the hottest in steep and hazardous terrain. The north side of the ridge is holding well. The fire has burned into a portion of the 2003 Wedge Fire.
Check the InciWeb Ninko Creek Fire page for further details, including road closure information . . .
The Daily Inter Lake posted their daily fire summary late last night. Among other things, it appears the Ninko Creek Fire had grown to 500 acres as of Sunday evening.
High winds late into Saturday night fanned fires across western Montana.
Sustained gusts as high as 30 mph in some places with even stronger winds in higher elevations led to increased fire activity in many of the area’s active wildfires, according to the U.S. Forest Service.