BY KAREN BOSSICK
Want to check out the trail work crews did on Timber Draw and Federal Gulch trails this summer?
It’s okay to do so.
Retiring Sawtooth National Forest Service Supervisor Kit Mullen has rescinded the area closure for the Sharps Fire.
People are now allowed back in the area of the fire, which burnt 101 square miles east of Bellevue and Hailey during the first three weeks of August. Trail crews were finishing up work on the two trails in East Fork just as the fire was taking off.
Forest Service supervisors caution that there are still some areas where there may be heat. And recreationalists should watch or snags and rolling rocks.
Ryan M. Jensen, 35, of Bellevue, confessed to starting the fire by shooting at an exploding target on public land where such targets are illegal. It started July 29 six miles east of Bellevue and ravaged parts of the Flat Top Sheep Ranch, as well as sagegrouse and pronghorn antelope habitat.
- Meanwhile, the lightning-caused Bible Back Fire burning 11 miles northeast of Smiley Creek in the White Cloud Mountains moved further downslope towards Germania Creek.
It is 232 acres and 0 percent contained.
Firefighters continued to focus their efforts on Friday on protecting a mining cabin in Washington Basin.
Redfish Lake is open to motorized and non-motorized boating as no scooper aircraft are currently being used.
- The 350-acre Stewart Creek Fire burning 16 miles northwest of Fairfield in the Lime Creek drainage continues to grow in heavy timber amidst gusty winds. Four helicopters and more than a hundred firefighters continue to be engaged in full suppression efforts.
The effort involves firefighters from Bureau of Indian Affairs and state firefighters from as far away as Alaska.
An area closure has been enacted in an area just west of Deer Mountain, just south of Iron Mountain Lookout and just east of Smoky Dome Lakes.
THE SMOKE?
The bulk of the smoke that colored parts of the Wood River Valley on Friday is from wildfires in British Columbia.
At last report, 563 wildfires were blazing in the western Canadian Province--56 of them considered big.
They’ve destroyed 2,316 square miles and overrun a village near the Yukon border, in addition to destroying homes elsewhere. One of the biggest fires is near Prince George.
B.C. Wildfire Service Testing out new products to battle the wildfires, according to CBC News. Among them: 120 water sprinkler cannons, which can pump out 1,250 gallon of water a minute to create a 590-foot-wide water curtain between a wildfire and a community.
No word yet on just how well it works.