Taxpayers are shouldering more than $120 million dollars in costs associated with the Pioneer wildfire that burned for two-and-a-half months this past summer in the Sawtooth Wilderness along the north shore of Lake Chelan.
The U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and state Department of Natural Resources met with Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison and county commissioner-elect Brad Hawkins for a Pioneer Fire debriefing on Friday.
"We discussed issues for approximately two hours, ya know how the fire started, where it started, and some of that is still being investigated," Hawkins told KOZI after the meeting. "The initial attack, and a lot of those intricate details about terrain and landscape. We also had a chance to discuss collateral impacts. That was one of the concerns that I shared, due to the wildfire smoke, the economic impact to the Chelan and Manson community."
"The U.S. Forest Service did dispatch two helicopters and were pretty active in trying to put that fire out," added Hawkins. "Within hours the helicopters did get there, but then you had the darkness and you weren't able to utilize the aircraft throughout the evening and then because of the steep terrain the fire did eventually did get away from even the ground crews."
By the end of August, fire managers reported that the Pioneer Fire had burned an estimated 38,735 acres.
"Once the fire spreads to the point where you can't put it out with the initial attack, even though you're throwing as many resources as you can at it, that's when it gets to be a problem," the incoming commissioner said. "We need to have the air assets available and the personnel for the initial attack, and try to overwhelm the fire soon after it starts, rather than just getting to the point where we're managing these fires once they get burning."
When the discussion came to the cost of fighting the fire, Hawkins shared, "Overall the costs are estimated at $120 million or more because all of the final invoices have not really been tabulated."
Federal and state governments reimburse agencies for the costs of wildfire response, "but not Chelan County," emphasized Hawkins. "Investing a lot to do their jobs and respond in some ways, coordinating evacuations or otherwise, and incurring a lot of costs. We wouldn't have to incur those costs if it were not for these fires on U.S. Forest Service land."
"We had a good healthy conversation with the U.S. Forest Service on how we can kinda mitigate some of our costs going forward," Hawkins added.
"it's not just the actually quantifiable dollar amounts, there's a lot of economic impacts to our economy in Chelan and Manson," said Hawkins. "The quality of life, the air quality impacts, the potential loss of homeowners insurance and other things once these fires spread like this."
"I was really reassured by the response from the Forest Service," Hawkins concluded. "It did seem very clear to me that they do very much care about the Chelan, Manson economy and other health impacts."
The new Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Supervisor, Tara Umphries, joined Forest Service Chelan District Ranger Paul Willard at the meeting.
"If there's places we can improve, we're always open to that," Willard said.
Supervisor Umphries comes to the forest from the Rocky Mountain Region, where she focused on Shared Stewardship and Wildfire Crisis Strategy.
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