Fire retardant is dropped at Jawbone Flats in the Opal Creek Wilderness in Oregon on Sept. 3, 2020. Drought conditions in the Pacific Northwest are pointing toward another severe fire season this year. (Augustus Gleason/Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center)Photo Gallery
Clark County is officially under a drought advisory, adding to a growing list of indications that the Pacific Northwest should prepare for a wildfire season even worse than the record-breaking 2020.
Southwest Washington isn’t alone. The majority of the state — 29 counties in total — falls under the drought advisory, according to a report issued Thursday by the Washington Department of Ecology. The department reports lower-than-normal rainfall across most of the state except for areas directly bordering Puget Sound.
The report indicates that March and April of this year were the fourth driest such period statewide since 1895.
“We’ve had extraordinarily dry conditions this spring,” Jeff Marti, water resources planner for the department, told The Columbian on Friday. “I would say this year the amount of area where there’s really dry, low soil moisture, has expanded.”
In Clark County, conditions are a little better but still very dry. According to Marti, the last 90 days in the county have been the 16th driest such period on record since 1895.
On average, Vancouver sees 3.74 inches of precipitation in March and 3.19 inches in April; this year, the National Weather Service reports that the city saw just 1.43 inches of rainfall in March and 0.33 inches in April. As of May 28, the city has received 0.58 inches of precipitation out of the 1.85-inch May monthly average.
“We’re dealing with long-term precipitation deficits which take more than a day’s rain to alleviate,” Marti said.
A drought advisory indicates that a region is on track to experience drought conditions. The Department of Ecology declares a drought when the water supply is at or projected to be at 75 percent of normal conditions and the shortage is expected to create a hardship.
Wildfires are exacerbated by droughts, which dry out trees and grasses and turn them into potential fuel.
Last year, wildfires decimated more than 800,000 acres in Washington and a million acres in Oregon. Including California, 2020 was the worst year for wildfires on record along the West Coast.
While Clark County was spared the worst of the fires, smoke from nearby blazes made the air quality so poor that it surpassed the maximum “hazardous” metric used by the Air Quality Index.
Many people from Oregon evacuated their homes and fled to Southwest Washington, relying on services from Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency to find temporary accommodations.
Since then, workers from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have been clearing brush by hand and conducting controlled burns over the last year — spokespeople for the agencies told the Associated Press earlier this week that they’ve thinned around 1.8 million acres so far.
Still, the risk for wildfires remains high in the coming season. On May 1, the National Interagency Wildfire Center issued a warning, stating that “significant fire potential is expected to increase to above average in June,” especially in Central Oregon and Southeast Washington.
Preparing for the season
In the most recent legislative session, the Washington Legislature passed a bill that established a dedicated funding stream to fight and prevent wildfires.
The bill was linked to a plan championed by Hilary Franz, director of Washington state’s Department of Natural Resources. Franz told The Columbian earlier this year that a portion of the plan revolves around building community resilience — using specific land management strategies to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires in vulnerable areas.
“The fact is, we can help homeowners and our communities and our neighborhoods become more resilient to fire,” Franz said.
DNR offers guidance to property owners on how to make their land and homes more defensible during a wildfire. Tips include:
Rake leaves, dead limbs and twigs, and remove leaves and rubbish from under structures.
Thin a 15-foot space between tree crowns and remove limbs within 15 feet of the ground.
Mow grass regularly.
Clear a 10-foot area around propane tanks and the barbecue.
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