Rangeland, habitat, ag infrastructure suffer extensive damage from House Draw fire
Rangeland, habitat, ag infrastructure suffer extensive damage from House Draw fire
By Alex Hargrave
Buffalo Bulletin
Via Wyoming News Exchange
BUFFALO — After nearly a week of burning, the House Draw fire is 88% contained as of Tuesday.
It's still too early to know exactly how many miles of fence, acres of rangeland and wildlife habitat and head of livestock have been lost to the roughly 174,702 acre fire that ignited Wednesday morning after a lightning strike and some ill-timed windy, dry conditions.
At this point, acreage-wise, between 5% and 6% of Johnson County — an area more than 100 square miles bigger than the size of Denver — has burned. No homes have been lost and no injuries have been reported.
Crews have poured into the county to fight the ongoing blaze, patrol what's already burned and coordinate efforts among multiple agencies managing four fires in Johnson, Campbell and Sheridan counties. The Southwest Area Incident Management Team, one of the 16 Type 1 interagency incident management teams throughout the U.S., took over management of the region's fires and has staged its operations out of Johnson County Fire District No. 1 since Sunday morning.
Incidents are rated on a scale from 5 to 1; a Type 1 incident is considered the most complex and requires the most resources and personnel, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The fire's containment status has steadily ticked up since Wednesday after an initial spread that scorched 4,000 acres in an afternoon and roughly 165,000 acres in less than 24 hours.
The incident prompted pre-evacuation orders for landowners from Clearmont to Kaycee and closed Interstate 90 between Buffalo and Gillette, and other local roads, overnight. Much of the area's livestock has been evacuated to the Johnson County Fairgrounds and elsewhere.
“It was burning so hot and moving so fast because of the wind and the ground temperature, lack of humidity and fuel load, because of last year's good (moisture) year,” said Johnson County Commission Chairman Bill Novotny at a Clear Creek Conservation District emergency meeting on Monday. “The fire guys are saying it was the perfect storm for the way this transpired.”
The National Fire Preparedness Level, as of Aug. 22, is a 4 out of 5, which means fire resources – personnel, trucks, aircraft – are “heavily committed” and demand for them is high, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Dirty August, as it's commonly referred to in wildland fire, has wreaked some havoc across Johnson County and northeastern Wyoming for a little more than a week.
The House Draw fire, the Remington fire in Sheridan County and Montana (196,387 acres as of Tuesday), the Flat Rock fire in western Campbell County (52,599 acres) and the Constitution fire in north-central Campbell County (24,594 acres) are all being managed by the complex incident management team.
A complex refers to two or more incidents in the same region that are managed under a single incident command, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.
Ansgar Mitchell, public information officer with the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, said on Monday that managing all the fires burning in the region under one team is an efficient way to provide staff and resources on each fire.
“When it comes to allocating resources with the current state of fire activity in the West, (a complex incident management team) can aid in that,” he said. “There may or may not be enough support services for each one of those fires, so our team provides support to all of them.”
The House Draw fire, specifically, has 262 fire personnel and 31 engines staffing the incident, as of Tuesday. Mitchell said that apparatus such as helicopters or planes vary from day to day as aircraft come and go for other fires.
At 88%, the House Draw fire is the most contained fire under the team's management.
Novotny said that the team will likely continue to work out of Johnson County for the duration of the remaining fires.
In an operations update posted on Facebook on Monday, Brandon Glenn, the fires' operations section chief, said that the northwestern part of the House Draw fire was nearly contained. On Monday, most of the fire was in patrol status – crews are monitoring some heavier fuels that may still be holding heat.
A downed power line burned roughly a quarter acre on the southwestern end of the fire on Sunday before it was caught. Rain hampered fire activity on the region's four fires on Monday, giving crews an opportunity to assess suppression repair needs, the team's Tuesday morning update says.
What’s to come
The last fire of this magnitude and threat in Johnson County occurred more than a dozen years ago. The Cato fire burned 28,000 acres 13 miles northeast of Buffalo, not far from the House Draw fire perimeter. That operation consisted of 70 fire personnel at its largest.
More recently, the Robinson Canyon fire in June 2021 burned a little more than 1,000 acres. The rough, mountainous terrain necessitated a Type 2 interagency team response with 225 personnel.
The Cato fire burned an area a little bit bigger than the perimeter of Buffalo, New York and its impacts on rangeland and habitat have continued to echo throughout the county, particularly in the ag community.
The same is expected of the still-burning House Draw fire.
Local, state and federal government response has been swift.
Gov. Mark Gordon visited his home county this week to survey damage.
At an emergency meeting of the Clear Creek Conservation District on Monday, commission chairman Novotny said that the governor will be unable to declare a disaster through the U.S. Department of Agriculture – which would unlock federal funds for rancher relief – until there is data on losses.
The county sent a questionnaire to affected landowners to gather that data.
The Johnson County Commission requested and received FEMA assistance last Thursday. At an emergency commissioners' meeting on Friday morning, Novotny told attendees that an interagency working group consisting of local, state and federal ag and wildlife agencies will convene in the coming weeks.
Approximately 100,000 acres of Greater Sage-Grouse core and mule deer habitat has been burned, Novotny said. Core areas are considered the state's best sage-grouse habitat based on its lack of disturbance and bird presence.
Much of the burned landscape will also need to be treated to prevent the spread of invasive weeds that flourish on disturbed ground, which could cost millions, conservation district manager Zach Byram said.
Fencing, at thousands of dollars per mile, will also cost millions.
“We have a lot of livestock on the mountain right now that is going to need to come down this fall,” Novotny said. “We have very few fences left. We've also lost most of the water infrastructure. Those things have to be put in place as soon as possible so that people can make adjustments to their operations.”
This story was published on August 29, 2024.