PAYSON — As large wildfires in the West have intensified in recent years, figuring out how to stabilize landscapes after the fire is out is becoming a bigger focus, according to James E. Hubbard, undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“It demands more attention than we were giving it 10 years ago,” he said.
“It demands more attention than we were giving it 10 years ago.”
Nearly a year after two wildfires — the Pole Creek Fire and the Bald Mountain Fire — burned more than 120,000 acres in Utah County and caused 6,000 people in the area to evacuate, Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, announced $10.6 million had been approved to restore the area’s watersheds on Tuesday at the Payson City Council Chambers.
The 2019 Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act will provide nearly $9.6 million in the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service will add an additional $1 million, under the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program, to fund technical assistance to “develop a comprehensive watershed plan.”
“That’s been approved and we can start on the work that all of you have been waiting to jump into,” Curtis told the group, adding that he was grateful to those who worked hard on the funding request.
During a roundtable discussion after the funding announcement, Curtis, Hubbard and representatives of other state agencies shared their insights with city officials from the southern end of the county, which was largely affected by the wildfires.
Earlier in the day, officials toured to the area to observe the fire and watershed damage in the area.
Bronson Smart, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service program manager, said the tour stopped by Pole Canyon, as well as cities like Payson and Woodland Hills, where there have been debris flows, sandbags on the road and burn scars.
Brian Cottam, director of the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands for the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said bottlenecks to restore and repair damage caused by the fires have come from a lack of funding, and the delays have led to frustration.
“This will make a huge difference,” he said, explaining that the recently approved funds will help with reseeding, soil stabilization and cleanup work.
“We’re sad we had to wait a year to get there, but we are here now,” Smart said.
In July, officials from Utah’s Watershed Restoration Initiative, Bureau of Land Management, the Utah Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service returned to the areas affected by the wildfires to assess the short- and long-term effects of the fires.
Previously, Chris Crockett, regional aquatic program manager with the Division of Wildlife Resources, told the Deseret News that local watersheds like the Nebo Creek and the Diamond Fork River “suffered greatly” as a result of the fires.
“Utah, in terms of actually getting the work done, is ahead of the game,” Hubbard said.
He predicts large wildfires in the west will continue to occur as the risk of fires gets stretched out over longer seasons.
“Post-fire, these days with larger fires are more of a challenge than they used to be,” he said. “The climate has changed enough that we’ve noticed. It doesn’t take much of a decrease in humidity and increase in temperature to make a difference in fire behavior.”
For Hubbard, shared stewardship is vital in dealing with wildfires as “there’s more communities out there than we can protect.” He called Utah a “culture that wants to make a difference.”
“And that’s where we want to invest — where people want to make a difference,” he said.
He said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has ideas about how to provide preventative measures to communities, but not without first comparing those ideas with state and local officials.
After the wildfires occurred, Chad Hudson, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache deputy forest supervisor, said the organization took away three lessons: doing a better job informing the public and local governments of their fire repression strategies, interacting with state and local government earlier and more often, and incorporating more science into their process.
During the right time and the right place, fires can have a positive impact on the forest, according to Hudson.
“These particular two fires ... all the signs indicated it was at the right place and the right time,” Hudson said.
For Brian C. Steed, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, catastrophic wildfires in the West have prompted a “national awakening” to pursue methods of preventative measures.
However, preventive measures can be costly, and he said it’s important for federal, state and local officials to “identify the places that are best suited for those treatments.”
“We live in the forest, fire does good things, really provides positive things. We just can’t have one in our yard,” said Woodland Hills Mayor Wendy Pray.
Prior to becoming mayor, Elk Ridge Mayor Ty Ellis told the group he used to enjoy thunderstorms. Now, he constantly worries about possible flooding when thunderstorms occur in his city.
Smart said the Spanish Fork watershed, which was largely affected by the wildfires, is beginning to heal but will still be at risk for flooding for the next two to four years.
“It’s exciting to have this funding announcement today, to be able to announce that we’ll be able to provide some financial assistance to the local governments,” he said.
Smart said the emergency funding will go to the most “critical areas,” like debris removal, stream bank protection and other measures to prevent flood flows from happening.
“It’s preventative,” he said. “And it’s so much cheaper to do the preventative work than it is to clean up after a disaster.”