The video above features two South Dakota Type 2 hand crews that are assigned in the Sioux Falls area to clear trees that fell or were damaged during a recent ice storm.
The Black Hat and the Bear Mountain crews work for the South Dakota Division of Wildland Fire. According to the Bear Mountain crew’s web site:
The crew’s primary function is that of hazardous fuels reduction on state and private lands within the Black Hills. The crew is available for both in-state and out-of-state dispatch assignments, and has responded to various all risk incidents throughout the U.S. since its inception.
The photo above shows the Black Hats on May 7, 2004 walking to the fire below, which started in a structure south of Hot Springs, South Dakota and spread into the wildland. Firefighters stopped it at the top of the ridge.
One of the DC-10’s, Tanker 910, visited Rapid City today. On the way back from scheduled maintenance in Michigan, they still have two more stops scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, before they head home to California. These times are approximate and subject to change.
Billings, Montana, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Missoula, Montana, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
These photos were taken by Bill Gabbert. Click on them to enlarge.
Cottonwood Fire, west of Crawford, NE, June 18, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert
In 2012 Nebraska had the most acres burned in wildfires since records started being kept in 1964. Approximately half a million acres were blackened by fire last year.
Acres burned in Nebraska wildfires, 1964-2012. From the Nebraska Forest Service.
Jasper Fire pyrocumulus, about two hours after the fire started, August 24, 2000. NPS photo by Bill Gabbert.
It has been almost 13 years since the Jasper Fire raged across 83,000 acres of the Black Hills of South Dakota. It started when a woman stopped on Highway 16 a couple of miles west of Jewel Cave National Monument to pee, she said later. Before she left, she lit a match, dropped it, and watched as it ignited a few pine needles and then started spreading across the forest floor. When I got to the area about two hours later I took the photo above of the pyrocumulus cloud over the fire.
Over the next several days the wind direction changed frequently driving the fire in different directions. It burned into the Black Hills National Forest and through Jewel Cave National Monument. But thanks to the prescribed fire program and fuel mitigation work that had been going on at Jewel Cave for a decade or so, no structures were damaged, except for an old historic outhouse which burned during mopup when the engine crew working nearby had their thumbs up their asses back turned.
As you can see in the article below by the Black Hills National Forest, rehab and mitigation is still going on.
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Date: April 2, 2013
Forest Service Continues Management within the Jasper Fire Area
Custer, SD – Black Hills National Forest Officials continue management actions within the Jasper and Roger’s Shack Fire areas that occurred on the Hell Canyon Ranger District west of Custer nearly 13 years ago. These two fire areas total about 90,000 acres.
Tree planting is scheduled to begin in April, to assist with reforestation of the Jasper area. Research plots established within the fire boundary have resulted in and continue to provide opportunity for valuable local research on fire effects and post-fire recovery.
Hell Canyon District Ranger, Lynn Kolund recently signed a decision which will allow for approximately 16,500 acres of fire hazard reduction in these fire areas. Over the course of about 10 years, prescribed burning will be used to reduce the fire hazard in these areas. In addition, the decision includes about 650 acres of thinning to improve the health and vigor of islands of forest stands within these areas. “Over the next several years we will work on this project to make the area more resilient for the future,” said District Ranger Lynn Kolund.
Fire officials are concerned about the fire danger this area presents as most of the dead trees have fallen over and grass has grown up around them. In some areas, the resulting fuel concentrations are 5 feet deep. According to Kolund, “Fires in these areas quickly spread like a grass fire but have the heat of a timber fire; they’re very dangerous to firefighters.”
Forest officials are focused on restoring the land, but safety is a top priority when it comes to fire danger. “There is a tremendous amount of fuel loading out there and it is a dangerous situation” said Gwen Lipp, Fire Management Officer for the Hell Canyon Ranger District. “When we get a wildfire in this area, it will be extremely difficult to control. This project will reduce the long term fire hazard and also improve the ability for firefighters to move quickly to put out a fire in the future.”
In addition to the prescribed burning, Forest officials will be thinning vegetation and planting new ponderosa pine trees. Kolund said, “We are doing our job as a land management agency. Restoration of this area of the Forest will ensure its availability for future generations.”
The Jasper Fire approaches the Visitor Center at Jewel Cave National Monument, August 25, 2000. NPS photo by Bill Gabbert.Firefighters use foam to protect the Visitor Center at Jewel Cave National Monument during the Jasper Fire, August 25, 2000. NPS photo by Bill Gabbert.
Nearly every year the city of Hot Springs, South Dakota asks the Hot Springs Volunteer Fire Department to conduct a prescribed fire along the Fall River. The burning reduces the woody vegetation which could clog the flood control channel where the river passes through the city. Before it was channelized and the Cold Brook Dam was constructed upstream, the city suffered frequent floods.
These photos were taken by Bill Gabbert, Saturday, March 30, 2013.
The photo above shows a section of the river just as the burning began. Below is the same area on hour or two after the fire passed through.
Even though there had been a light rain the night before and the relative humidity was in the mid-50s, the cattails burned very well.
I shot all of these photos at 1/500th second, and was pleased with the way it captured the flames, such as in the image above where a ball of fire can be seen about 20 feet above the main flame front. I used two cameras, both Canon T3i’s. The lenses were also Canon, 100-400mm and 17-85mm lens.
The Nebraska legislature voted 36 to 0 on Monday to advance a bill to the second round of debate that would appropriate $1.7 million to improve the response to wildfires. LB634 directs that contracted single engine air tankers be stationed at Valentine and Chadron, one at each location, during the fire season. It would also provide for the thinning of forests, make more wildfire training available to volunteer firefighters, and develop a Type 3 incident management team.
The air tankers would be available through mutual aid agreements for fires that occur across the states lines in South Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Before the vote on Monday the bill was amended, adding the following:
Since an emergency exists, this act takes effect when passed and approved according to law.
