Lori Townsend: Spring is finally here.

And as the snowpack recedes, wildfire becomes a concern, especially before greenup.

What's the outlook for this year's fire season and how much will standing dead spruce affect it?

Unknown: At this point in time, it's kind of it's fighting a losing battle to be honest, just because the volume of trees out there kind of supersedes any, any amount that the tree services can keep up with.

Lori Townsend: We'll check in on prevention plans for the summer, and how you can help protect property from wildfire, coming up right now on Alaska Insight.

Take a flight over the Mat-Su Valley, the anchorage bowl or the Kenai Peninsula and you may notice areas that were once evergreen but have now turned a rusty, reddish brown.

All of those trees are fuel for wildfires and a small brown beetle has killed many of them.

As Alaska Public Media's Emily Schwing reports, it's not only happening in remote parts of the state.

Thousands of urban trees are also coming down because of the spruce beetle.

Unknown: Paul Gruzenksi is suiting up for a long day of tree climbing and cutting.

He owns and operates Paul's Tree Service and business is really good for him right now.

You get into this industry because you care about trees, not because you want to cut down every single tree in neighborhoods.

But unfortunately, that's kind of what we're doing now.

As Gruzenksi wields a chainsaw, homeowner Chet Williams takes one last look at the three spruce trees that he's known for much of his life.

He bought this house since Barnard more than 40 years ago.

We had friends from from Europe come over, and they were they were just kind of amazed.

And they said, "You have so many trees!"

and I thought, you know, I never really thought about it.

You know, they're they're part of the neighborhood and it's a shame.

The crew with Paul's Tree Service will not only remove three spruce trees from Chet Williams' front yard, they'll also take down three trees in front of the house across the street.

Then they'll move on to three other properties in Anchorage.

According to the state Division of Forestry, more than 1.1 million acres of forest in South Central Alaska have been impacted by the spruce beetle since 2015.

30,000 of those acres are right here in the Anchorage municipality.

Gruzenksi says he takes down between 30 and 40 trees a day.

I mean, we're changing entire neighborhoods.

If you drive a little bit north you can see that there's practically no spruce trees less than half there are ones that are left that are already Brown.

So Turnagain got hit hard, that was kind of the first spot and now it's creeping up Hillside.

So it's just a matter of time before most areas in town will be affected by it in one way or the other.

Spruce beetles bore into the trees in the fall and start to emerge as temperatures hit 60 degrees or warmer.

Once they start to fly in the spring, they'll find more vulnerable spruce trees to attack.

So now the crew is racing to take down as many infested spruce trees as possible to help stave off the beetle spread.

Even though Paul Gruzenksi has about a half dozen other tree service companies to compete with, he says there's plenty of business to go around.

At this point in time, it's kind of it's fighting a losing battle, to be honest, because the volume of trees out there kind of supersedes any, any amount that the tree services can keep up with.

Even with everybody just cutting spruce trees, it's still just, it's impossible to get all of them before me.

So we'll do it throughout the summer.

But it's just one of those things that we just try to do as much as we can, especially before May.

Across town at the anchorage Botanical Garden education specialist Patrick Ryan is taking his regular morning walk through the forest.

It's not just signs of spring he's looking for.

There's also evidence that the spruce beetle has been hard at work here.

Right here is one of the boreholes from the beetles.

They're all over here.

Ryan brings along some of his teaching aids including a little jar of frass.

It's the sawdust left behind after the spruce beetle bores into a tree.

He says it's a telltale sign of infestation.

And actually the perception i think is that all the trees are going to die, all the spruce trees are going to die.

And that's not really true.

And of course the beetle thing is cyclical.

Ryan is excited to find a small group of spruce saplings during his walk.

He'll leave these trees here for now, but he may come back later in the season to dig them up or You pat them and in a few years, replant them in places along the walkways where other older white spruce trees succumbed to the spruce beetle.

By the time that you know, we noticed that they're not in good shape.

That one's got to go.

But as we see, there's hope.

There's life For Alaska Public Media, I'm Emily Schwing in Anchorage.

Lori Townsend: This story sure hit home for me.

I had to have five of my beautiful old mature spruce trees cut down last year, and three more will go this summer because of beetles.

We'll talk more about that later.

But joining me right now this evening to discuss how fire conditions are shaping up across the state is Tim Mowry.

Tim is a public information officer for the Alaska Division of Forestry, Wildland Fire and Aviation Program.

And Norm McDonald is the division chief.

Thanks both of you for being with me this evening.

Norm I want to start with you.

We have had some rain in South Central over the last day or so.

Not much, but a little the ground is of course soggy from recent snow melt but this is still a dangerous time for fire before greenup, correct?

Unknown: It is yeah, the the grasses in those early season fires are some of our most challenging especially with a little little wind.

So the rain definitely hope that we'll take that but it doesn't take very long for that to dry back out again and and be a be a hazard.

Lori Townsend: Is it particularly dangerous also because people just aren't thinking about fire this time of year when they're still lumps of snow about?

Unknown: I think that's part of it.

You look in the hillsides and in the trees still there's you know, there's there's still some snowpack lab.

I know everybody's in a rush to get the yards cleaned up and do their yard cleanup.

And and sometimes not thinking how the winds can pick up in the afternoon and like they do around the Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage.

So it's one of our the times a year is what we do try to do most of our messaging that we can and just keep educating people about the dangers of a fire this time of year, even with a little snowpack still in the trees.

Lori Townsend: Tim, I want to turn to you now in an earlier interview, you said that pre greenup the only real fire danger is from people explain what you mean by that.

Unknown: Yeah, well Lori, obviously, we don't have any lightning right now.

And there's really only only really two ways that fires start and that's human caused and, and lightning caused.

And we don't really get into lightning season until the the last week in May or the first week in June.

So all the fires we get in April and mid May are pretty much human caused.

And we have already seen several grass fires in the mat su Valley on the Kenai Peninsula in the Copper River Basin that are that have started mainly as a result of debris, debris burning and, and piles that aren't extinguished properly or that escaped from those piles or burn barrel fires where fires escape out of burn barrels or people have burned barrels set on, say grass rather than mineral soil.

And so all the fires we're getting right now are are preventable.

You know, if you look at things and you follow the guidelines on the burn permits, you shouldn't have a problem.

People don't always do that.

Lori Townsend: How How much is alleviated by greenup How much does that really change things Unknown: greenup changes considerably because this dry, dead grass that we have right now is extremely dry.

It's basically freeze dried from the winter and all the moisture has been sucked out of it.

And it'll ignite with a single Spark.

And once you get green grass and leaves the you know that's that's much more moisture in it.

And it's not gonna it's not gonna be nearly as receptive to an ignition source as, as these dry dead grasses are and dead leaves and spruce needles, all that stuff.

It's it once that snow melts, that stuff takes, you know, a little breeze and it's like a blow dryer and it's trying to day or two and it's it's ready to ignite.

Lori Townsend: And Tim, in an earlier interview, you talked about some of the ways that people can unintentionally start fires that they might not be thinking about at all as fire hazards or risks.

I know myself on an ultra dry spring I was weed whipping in the alley and started to smell kind of a smoldering smell it was so ultra dry that I stopped because I thought it's it seemed as if that dry dead grass was going to ignite just from weed whipping it.

So what are some of the things that people may be engaged in that they aren't, you know, being ultra careful because they aren't thinking about fire.

Unknown: Yeah, that's a really good point, Lori.

You know, there's there innumerable, innumerable ways that fires can start I mean, setting hot chainsaw down on dry grass on this grass we have right now can ignite a fire.

I mean, I've last year we had a grass fire start because somebody disposed burning pop ground burning popcorn on a on a dead dry lawn, and it ignited the grass.

You know, sparks from a bad spark a restaurant an ATV or a chainsaw.

Anything that can that can produce a spark, I mean, recreational shooting, if you get a ricochet off a rock or something like that, that's a spark.

And it's just looking for an ignition source and all this dead dry grass is that ignition source and any kind of equipment that could produce it could produce a spark, you know, welding, anything like that.

And people aren't necessarily thinking about that if you're if you're going to do some soldering or welding, you know, you're not necessarily thinking about putting having dry, you know, dirt around you instead of grass.

But we've seen fire start in all those ways and and others so people just, if something can cause a spark, it can cause a fire.

Wow, good Lori Townsend: reminder not to throw your bird popcorn out the door interior lawn.

That's a norm.

Of course, it varies every year, depending on spring temperatures and, and other factors moisture, but when do you really start monitoring conditions?

And is it the interior that generate that generally dries out the first first in the state?

Unknown: Well, the first theory to dry is usually our coastal areas.

And that's it Central, South Central that those areas in southeast with just the lower snowpacks.

And then the not far behind is the interior.

So our first kind of the telltale signs of our fire season are usually Homer and Kodiak, then you work your way up the peninsula in South Central and anchorage and Matsu.

And then on some years southeast, which is usually rain forests as potential this time of year as well.

And as we talked about, its use that dry grass.

And it's a shorter, shorter window about a three three to four week window of when that grass is our primary fuel.

Lori Townsend: And what are you seeing this spring so far?

I know it's early, but how far out can you get a sense of a forecast about the potential fire danger ahead?

You know, Unknown: it's Alaska, the weather is difficult anyways to judge, we are getting better at some of the longer term predictions.

Right now what they're calling for is more of what we call a normal season.

Not anything super high like we had in 2004 and five and six, and 15 and 19.

But also not predicting anything like we had last year where it was a relatively slow season.

So that normal season in Alaska is right around a million acres and being aware that those acreage Azhar it might be very busy.

Whether it's in Fairbanks or Kenai or the Matsu area, those are those are populated areas.

And that's where we have concerned.

So I don't know if that helps you or not, and it's difficult to judge, but when weather predictions are showing now is what we call a normal season.

Lori Townsend: Okay.

And of course, that can change quickly, depending on what comes our way.

I know.

Tim, you talked about the three largest and most damaging fire events here the Millers reach fire in the late 90s that destroyed hundreds of homes.

And the other two that were more recent fires the sockeye fire about six years ago.

What does it say about the future trend for fire here larger and more frequent?

Or what?

What are you discerning from the fact that two of the of the largest three events have happened within the last just the last few years?

Unknown: Yeah Lori, one of those factors is that we we have more people moving into what we call the wildland urban interface.

You know, the Valley wasn't nearly as populated, you know, 30 years ago as it is today in those areas around Willow where two of those fires have occurred.

You know, and you're just talking about sizes and fires, you know, it doesn't take a large fire to be devastating.

You know, the McKinley Fire burned just over 3000 acres, and the sockeye fire burned over just over 7000 acres.

And in Alaska, neither one of those fires are considered a big fire, you know, where we have fires over 100, 200, 300 thousand acres, but if they're in the right place at the right time, they can be really have devastating effects like those those three fires in the valley did.

And I'm not an expert but but the fact that those three fires have occurred in the Mat-Su Valley is possibly an indication that that area is becoming more prone to fire.

And in just the fact that we have a bigger population now, and they're spreading out and they're moving into, you know, you go up and down the Parks Highway, and you've got a lot of one way in one way out roads were subdivisions have been constructed.

And and now there's homes in there that we have to try to protect, and the homeowners have to be conscious of protecting against wildfire.

And we're just, you know, the population is getting bigger people are, they want to live in the woods, and they want trees around their house, and you've got to, you've got to find a good balance in there.

Lori Townsend: Describe the changes that have been happening when the snowpack, the snowpack melts now as compared to 20 years ago, and how that affects the length and intensity of the fire season.

Unknown: Sure, you know, the snowpack.

Studies have shown the snowpack is is melting two weeks earlier than it did 20 years ago.

So our fire seasons are starting earlier.

And and that has a ripple effect.

Because that season starting earlier, we need to train our people earlier, we need to have them ready to go, you know, by April one.

Now, instead of May, you know in after those fire seasons in 2004 and 2005.

That norm alluded to, we asked the legislature to move back the fire season from May 1 the start of viruses in the May 1 to April 1, which is when we require burn permits to do any outdoor burning.

And he's burn barrels.

And so we moved our fire season up a month earlier, because of these conditions we're seeing and, and what that means is, like I said, we've got to be training people earlier and have them ready to go.

And it also means a longer season for them.

Because now in 2019 our fire season went all the way into September or early October, the Swan Lake fire down the Kenai Peninsula was still burning at the end of September, early October.

And that's a long fire season for firefighters to to hang in there and to be vigilant and to be engaged, you know, and working as hard as they work on a daily basis.

That gets really tough.

And that's one of the things we're contending with is trying to make sure everybody's trained and ready and is able to to put forth the effort that's required to deal with these longer and more extreme fire seasons.

Lori Townsend: That queues up nicely.

Norm I want to turn back to you this is seasonal work.

But as Tim was referencing, it's getting to be a longer, longer season.

So how difficult does that make having continuity with trained workers, both the fact that it isn't a full time job, but the season is lengthening now?

Unknown: Yeah, that's been like, like Tim mentioned, that's just the trend is longer season starting earlier, which means bringing people on earlier to be ready.

So the challenge is, you know, it comes down to funding is one of the issues and having the budget to do that.

recruiting and getting people who are interested in this type of work to be able to sign up.

When I first started, it was work that a lot of college students did.

It was a really good seasonal job between semesters.

And then that's changed not only in Alaska, but the Lower 48.

And, you know, we've stopped talking about fire seasons, but the fire year, and a lot of our firefighters, they live in working Alaska, but they could travel Lower 48 when there's fires down there.

And it's you know, what was at one time was a six month season as people are working 8, 10, 12 months in Alaska and around the country, supporting the national effort.

So it's a it's a national issue that we're having to adapt to these longer seasons.

Lori Townsend: And how well staffed are you heading into this season?

And in what does it usually take what what you said this is predicted to be an average year how many firefighters are needed in an average year.

Unknown: So we are staffed for like the typical spring season we'll have 250 firefighters available on hand in Alaska.

And it does not take very long for to exceed those capabilities.

So what we have in store and ready is a national plan where we share share our resources.

So as soon as we get to a point where we cannot stop the fires we need to before we have in Alaska, we import firefighters from the lower 48 we have a compact with Canada we've imported aircraft and firefighters from Canada.

So when we exceed our capabilities, we have processes to bring help in and you're like 2019 is a really good example.

I think we have brought in over just under 7000 firefighters to Alaska in the Lower 48 so the concern we have there is when Alaska has a season like 2019 and the Lower 48 as a fire season like 2020 at the same time shortage of resources nationally, we share very well.

But again, there's just a limited pool to go around.

And when everybody's busy at once, that's when that's when we really have shortages.

Lori Townsend: Are you able to sort of stand up?

Somewhat quickly when you get to those pinch points like that with volunteer firefighters?

Or how do you manage that, then when when resources are stretched, so thin?

Unknown: Yeah, we have a process to prioritize the fires that will we'll put people on.

And we do that daily, we have a really strong predictive services, services and looks at the weather, and predicts fire behavior over the course of the week.

So we can try to stay in front of that and bring people in before there's an emergency and have them ready to go in Alaska.

And we work really closely, we've got excellent cooperation through our local fire departments.

We work with the federal agencies, the Forest Service, and the BLM.

And we share resources throughout Alaska.

It's part of the Alaska fire plan, and everybody works really well together.

So although we are state of Alaska, we work very closely with all the other fire departments and fire agencies in the state.

Lori Townsend: Tim, that queues up this next bit of conversation, you had talked about July 10, as the conversion date, describe what that means.

There's four categories.

I think that's what norm was just referencing when it comes to prioritizing fires, especially when resources are tight.

And and do you see that date changing in the future, maybe moving farther later into July?

Unknown: Well, it's not a concrete date.

Lori, that is sort of the date that that everybody alludes to.

But if the conditions are such that it's gonna require pushing that date back, they do that and without getting too much into it is, yeah, July, July 10.

Or that first part of July, is typically when we get a weather change in Alaska, or, you know, that didn't happen in 2019.

But particularly sometime in mid July, we get Southwest flow, which brings in moisture, especially to the valley and South Central Alaska, and really moderates fire danger, danger.

And at that point, you know, our fire suppression agencies and managers will look at the situation, look at how much fire we have on the landscape.

And look at the forecast and determine, you know, what our fire season is going to look like from there on out, when we get into July, you know, our days are getting shorter, it's getting cooler, our burn windows shrinks a little bit.

But that's the date sort of where we determine how many resources we need to keep in Alaska, and how many resources we can maybe make available to the Lower 48.

Because like Norman alluded to, this is a national effort, you know, we bring in a lot of firefighters from the Lower 48.

And when we can we want to reciprocate and help them when they have bad fire seasons, like they did last year.

So it's sort of a very fine line.

But one thing I want to stress is that we always will keep enough resources in Alaska to respond to initial attack, and to protect Alaskans and the resources here, we're not just going to open the door and ship everybody to Lower 48 we've always got people here staffing our area offices, and not just us, but other agencies.

And so, but at some point in the season, we can we can look at what's going on in the state and out of state and sort of make a determination of what resources we need here to keep here and what resources we can make available to go help other states when they need it.

Lori Townsend: We only have a couple of minutes left and norm want to turn back to we started the show off with this package story about dead standing spruce trees or nearly dead standing spruce trees and what a problem that is.

How big of a concern is this for you?

Especially in these urban areas where it seems like you can look just about anywhere and see a lot of these dead trees.

Yeah, I Unknown: think you mentioned flying over the Mat-Su borough and, and seeing the sea of brown and gray.

And it is a concern, you know, the standing dead or a fuel type that's not only volatile, and that helps spread fire, but it's really a dangerous place to work for our firefighters.

We those are called snag batches.

And it doesn't take a lot of fire impact around the base of those trees and the roots to have them fall down and tip over and you know, it's just a really dangerous environment to work in.

So not only is it a dangerous fuel type for spread, but just just operating in that it's difficult.

A lot of our tools we use in the normal forest or fuel type just aren't effective in a beetle kill stand.

Sometimes the best option is to back off and get into a different fuel type.

And then let that let that area burn and try to catch it where it's safer and you're gonna have more success.

Lori Townsend: Okay, well thank you so much Norm and Tim for being with me this evening and raising awareness.

We can't prevent fires caused by lightning strikes, but we can prevent human caused fire.

Be prepared when burning on your property.

Check local burn mandates.

Watch the weather for wind conditions, and keep leaves, dead wood and other fuels clear from around your home and buildings.

Make sure your campfires are completely out and watered down before leaving a site to avoid later flare-ups.

Get out and enjoy Alaska's beautiful summertime opportunities for camping, fishing and outdoor fun safely and responsibly.

That's it for this episode of Alaska Insight.

Be sure to tune in daily to your local public radio station for Alaska Morning News and Alaska News Nightly and make your voice heard by calling in to talk of Alaska every Tuesday morning.

For the latest news from across the state visit our website alaskapublic.org.

Sign up for our free Daily News Digest so you don't miss important stories.

All episodes of Alaska Insight and related video are at alaskapublic.org/alaskainsight.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Goodnight.