Darren Higashiyama gets paid to think about worst-case scenarios.
This time of year, when lightning flashes over barren forests and canyons dotted with cabins and campgrounds, the thought of a blocked wildfire evacuation route can keep him awake at night.
“All it takes is one trailer to skid and everything is in disarray,” said Higashiyama, disaster preparedness coordinator for the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office, in an interview from Ellensburg, Washington.
“We are in a fire-prone area,” he added. “We have dodged a lot of bullets, but luck is not a plan.”
With that in mind, Kittitas County has embarked on a remarkable, state-funded project to thin the forests and remove brush along two-lane roads in the Cle Elum, Roslyn and Suncadia area. These roads would be the only escape routes for homeowners, hikers and campers in rural areas should another major wildfire break out nearby.
Several other counties in the Pacific Northwest also won competitive federal grants to systematically “strengthen” wildfire evacuation routes.
The US Forest Service has awarded Kittitas and Ferry counties $10 million each to implement a Community forest fire protection plan.
Grant County, Oregon, also received $10 million, in this case to reduce flammable vegetation along 308 miles of roads that serve as evacuation routes.
Neighboring, sparsely populated Wheeler County, Oregon, received $1 million to purchase a new long-boom tractor with attachments that can mow and mulch up to 50 feet from the roadside. Wheeler County committed to clearing 250 miles of escape corridors at a rate of 50 miles per year.
The focus on wildfire evacuation routes stems from a 2018 tragedy in Northern California in which 84 residents died when wind-whipped flames destroyed a mountain town without adequate escape routes. Some of the deaths occurred when the flames overtook cars trying to flee the burning town.
“It was the Paradise, California, fire that really caught our attention,” said Mike Starkovich, a former fire marshal with the Cle Elum Ranger District. “It’s obvious. Oh man, I see similarities here.”
“That was kind of the match that started it all,” added Starkovich, who now works as a forest fuels specialist for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
Last month, the tense evacuation of Canada’s famous Jasper National Park was another indication of why this issue matters.
There, thousands of workers and visitors were forced to flee west without warning, through darkness, smoke and falling ash on a clogged mountain road. Several fast-growing wildfires encroached on the town of Jasper, blocking alternate routes east and south. Fortunately, no one was killed.
“It’s obvious that we need to work on this,” Starkovich said in an interview. “We want to minimize intense flames down to the roadway to get people moving and then use it as a control line.”
According to Starkovich, maintaining a passable road has benefits for both sides. Not only can evacuees leave the building, but rescue workers must also be able to get to the scene safely.
How to strengthen an evacuation route against wildfires
Brandon Schmidt, chief of Kittitas County’s First Fire District, said area fire chiefs have worked with local, state and federal agencies to develop a list of evacuation routes to work with the federal grant. He wants hired crews to thin out trees and trim brush back as far as landowners allow, but at least 50 feet from the roadside.
“We are not going to do any clear-cutting. Some people are worried about that and what it will look like,” Schmidt said.
He said the “prescription,” as it is known in the jargon, includes the removal and chipping of fallen branches and tree stumps. Brush and spindly, sickly saplings known as “ladder fuels” will also be removed.
Schmidt said live, green trees over 8 inches tall at breast height will be left standing but pruned to about 15 feet tall. The ultimate goal is to replace dense, overcrowded forest with an open understory that will minimize fire intensity as a wildfire approaches the road and reduce the risk of crown fire.
Topping the list of Kittitas County’s wildfire evacuation routes is State Highway 903 from Roslyn to Salmon La Sac. This tree-lined, two-lane paved road is the only way to hundreds of homes and cabins in the Cle Elum Lake area. The road also leads to popular campgrounds in the national forest and hiking trails at the upper end of the lake.
North Cle Elum Ridge and South Cle Elum Ridge are other key locations accessible by narrow, winding access roads. The county has experienced strong population growth and recreational use as people move from urban Western Washington to or retire to their little slice of heaven on the sunny side of the mountains.
The Kittitas County Conservation District is responsible for awarding contracts for forest fire protection under district manager Anna Lael. She estimates that the project will take five years.
Lael said she will try to coordinate the thinning projects with the U.S. Forest Service, since many of the priority evacuation routes are on federal land. The idea is that county grant money would be used on private, local and state lands and on public rights-of-way, while the Forest Service could bring in its own funds to expand the work onto its land.
Starkovich said measures to reduce fuel use along roads that may be needed for evacuations would be a priority throughout the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
One factor that could slow things down, says Schmidt, is that permission must be obtained from every private landowner with road access before chippers, brush cutters and chain saws can be used at full speed.
“Coordination with landowners will be one of the more difficult aspects,” Lael added.
Another problem is the strong competition for landscape gardeners and thinning crews, as the focus is currently on building firebreaks in the forests on the outskirts of the foothill towns. The long-standing Firewise program continues to work with homeowner associations to modify the landscaping around individual homes to make them more resilient to wildfires.
“It’s exciting to see this work progressing,” Lael said. “We need to build momentum because there is still a lot of work to be done.”
