Wyoming is heading into wildfire season with new planes and a helicopter to help suppress fires.
State Forester Kelly Norris told the State Board of Land Commissioners on April 3 that lawmakers replenished the state’s emergency fire suppression account and funded new aviation resources just in time.
“ We're closely working with our current aviation contractors and plan to provide an additional medium helicopter this summer, along with two more single engine air tankers,” she said.
Funding included in SF 152 doubled State Forestry’s aviation assets and the staffing needed to support them.
That brings state air resources to four single engine air tankers (SEAT) in Casper, one Type 3 helicopter, and one medium Type 2 helicopter.
Norris said the staff State Forestry is adding this summer includes an additional permanent helibase manager, three more seasonal helitack staff and one SEAT base seasonal manager.
“This is a really big deal,” she said. “State Forestry will have our first ever helitack crew made up of state forestry staff to national standards.”
Helitack crews are teams of firefighters that hitch rides on helicopters and are dropped off or rappel from the aircraft to rapidly assess and respond to burns.
A new helibase is set to begin construction later this year, Norris said. Meanwhile, State Forestry plans to continue housing the helibase at the Duncan Ranch near Glenrock.
Norris added the new SEAT base manager will enable a temporary reload base at a place like the airport in Gillette, allowing for quicker response times in that area.
Norris said she’s expecting competition for firefighting resources this year due to nationwide drought conditions and staffing uncertainty at the federal level. The state depends on federal firefighting resources, like aircraft and crews.
She said Wyoming is preparing to work more closely with nearby states through state-to-state compact agreements to respond to fires. Already this year, State Forestry and counties have assisted on fires in Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, North and South Carolina, California and South Dakota.
Spring wildfire outlook
Wyoming has already seen 103 wildfires and 2,600 acres burned this year, Norris said. She said that’s about double the number of fires by this time last year, but only 15% of the acreage burned.
“We are still in a La Niña, with drought conditions much more severe across the state compared to last year,” she said. “At this time, our snowpack has improved, with the majority of the areas in Wyoming meeting normal conditions.”
Those “normal,” albeit dry, conditions led the National Interagency Fire Center to predict a “normal” potential for large wildfires through July.
Western Wyoming has been wetter than normal, though a moisture deficit remains.
In south and northeast Wyoming, snowpack is still well below normal. Persistent dryness in the Black Hills has already pushed fire danger risk to high levels.
High winds are expected to pick up this month, as are temperatures. But a monsoon is predicted to arrive in July, bringing much-needed moisture that’s expected to reduce fire danger — but with a bigger risk of lightning-ignited fires.
