Efforts by public land managers to reduce wildfire risk continue in Southern Utah. Considerable accumulations of excess woody materials have been gathered together in slash piles in a fire-prone area just south of Beaver. It’s now the best time of year to extinguish what would otherwise be fuel for summertime, potentially catastrophic wildfires.
“There is large accumulations of hazardous fuels that present a really high fire risk to the community,” said the Bureau of Land Management’s Nick Howell. “So, we’ve brought in our fire crews and we’ve actually thinned some of those fuels down mechanically, mainly with chainsaws. We’ve been able to build piles. We usually do that work in the summer months, and then in the winter, when we have a little bit of snow on the ground and favorable conditions like we have today, we’re able to go in and burn those piles and get rid of that hazardous vegetation.”
Burning the slash piles near Beaver will not only lessen wildfire risk, but also make for improved wildlife habitat in the Nevershine Hollow area.