It’s been a slow wildfire season so far. As of July 6, just over 200,000 acres have burned from 273 different fires. Which, according to Tim Mowry, spokesman for the State Division of Forestry, puts 2017 well below normal.
”In a typical season, we average about 1.2 million acres a year and about 500 fires,” Mowry said.
Mowry cautioned that at this time last year, even less acreage had burned, but then came an uptick in activity that boosted the total. While that could still happen this year, Mowry said that normally mid-July trends toward cooler, wetter weather.
As a result, Alaska wildfire fighting agencies are ramping down suppression operations across large parts of the state. Mowry said aviation resources are already being downsized.
”The two big scoopers — the CL-415’s from the U.S. forest service that have been up here –were released, so they’ll be headin’ south,” Mowry said.
Mowry said the state is hanging on to smaller water scooping planes, retardant tankers and helicopters for a while longer. And Alaska firefighting personnel have yet to be made available for Lower 48 assignments.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
