When the California Interagency Incident Management Team 13 arrived in Randle early this month, taking over for another team, there were 43 active fires scattered across the Gifford Pinchot National Forest’s northwestern Cowlitz Valley Ranger District.
Today, there are just three.
Clint Green, operations section chief on the group of fires collectively dubbed the Cowlitz Complex Fire, considers that a win. At least, with the qualifier, “in this circumstance.”
In total, the 723 acres of the fires are 39% contained, and a crew of 265 people were staffing the complex on Friday.
“We’ve made quite a bit of progress,” Green said on Wednesday, standing in the firefighting team’s briefing tent in Randle. “It does feel good, at the end of the day, to know that you made a difference and you’re setting the next team up to be successful.”
There are four sections of the district where fires started after lightning on Aug. 25. Green’s job is to run a risk assessment and assign section chiefs tasks each day. So far, that’s been successful, too.
“Safety reports (are) out every day, if we have any injury or illnesses. And I think there was one spider bite or bug bite,” Green said. “That’s the only — knock on wood — the only incident that we’ve had.”
Out of 43 fires, 28 are “out.” For firefighters to declare a forest fire “out,” everything in the vicinity, including the dirt and underground layers of leaves and organic material, must be cool to the touch.
Of the remaining blazes, 11 are “controlled,” meaning they are mostly or completely extinguished. One, the Mission Fire southeast of Packwood, is “contained,” which means the fire is unlikely to leave natural or firefighter-established boundaries.
Upon the firefighting team’s arrival, the Grassy Mountain Fire was the most worrisome. As the crow flies, it’s less than 3 miles north of Randle in extremely hard-to-reach terrain. That’s a blessing and a curse. It makes firefighting without air operations extremely challenging, but also means the blaze would take a week of hot, dry weather and growth to climb up and down the ridges between it and Randle.
Its proximity to the community makes the fire a priority. As of Wednesday, the complex’s about 300-person staff had established containment boundaries on the southern, northern and eastern side of Grassy Mountain. The perimeter would allow for growth until a season-ending weather event fully extinguishes the fire, but would make containment easy, if that growth does occur.
As fall begins, with cooler temperatures and high humidity, the Grassy Mountain Fire doesn’t pose as many concerns, Green said.
On the southern half of the Cowlitz Complex, the Spencer Quartz and Snagtooth fires had grown to 206 and 118 acres, respectively, by Friday morning. Though, neither are likely to threaten significantly valuable resources (human or natural), before a season-ending weather event.
And, pointing to a map of the fire on Wednesday, Green is proud to say the same about the Grassy Mountain Fire.
It’s likely to burn until very heavy rains can penetrate the “duff” layer, of decomposing, unburnt organic debris, ash from Mount St. Helens and a second duff layer underneath. The duff makes for delicious fuel, if you’re a fire. And thick tree canopies make it difficult for rain to reach the forest floor.
“That’s Mother Nature’s way of cleaning up the forest floor. In my opinion, it’s really doing nothing but good,” Green said. “We’re not seeing a lot of tree torching. … It’s really not doing any damage to the land.”
The Cowlitz Indian Tribe has a history of controlled burning in what is now the Gifford Pinchot, according to a U.S. Forest Service archeological report that cites various court cases and oral histories. It can be found at http://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/fmt-v53n2-2003.pdf.
However, that practice ceased when the Cowlitz River Valley was occupied by settlers, according to a statement by Mary Kiona, an Upper Cowlitz elder, in a 1955 land claim case.
Over the weekend and early next week, the complex’s meteorologist is forecasting a rainy front will carry in about 2 inches of precipitation, which is expected to make a significant impact on the fires.
“We do take all the values at risk into consideration when we come up with the plans we’re doing,” Green said. “And, even though we’re not directly fighting the fire on the fire’s edge, we are coming up with plans to keep the fire out of the communities.”
Fore more information:
Cowlitz Complex Fires information phone line: 360-208-8075 between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Email: 2023.cowlitzcomplex@firenet.gov
Online: Cowlitz Complex Information on InciWeb, https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cowlitzcomplex/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GPNF
Glossary
Incident Management Team: For large wildfires, responders include teams with varying complexity levels. Type 1 teams manage the largest, most difficult fires. On Sept. 25, the Cowlitz Complex will shift down to a Type 3 incident management team, which will have a smaller, more appropriately sized team as the fires start to reach containment.
Cowlitz Complex Fire: A joint name for several dozen fires across the Gifford Pinchot National Forest that began after an Aug. 25 lightning storm.
Duff: Layers of forest floor made of unburned, decomposing leaves, needles, cones, branches, etc., that fuel fires and can cause underground burning.
Contained: When a fire has been restricted to a boundary, whether natural or one that was created by firefighters digging around the fire’s perimeter.
Out: When there is absolutely no danger of a fire’s reignition. Firefighters test this by sticking their fingers in the dirt to ensure it is cool to the touch.
