Late Fire Wildfire Season Points to Need for Better Forest Management

Last summer, our state’s wildfire season was below normal---a welcome relief for firefighters and smoke-choked Washingtonians, especially city dwellers. However, that all changed this fall.

First, the 15,000-acre Bolt Creek fire erupted in early September near Skykomish along Highway 2. Heavy smoke blanked the densely populated Puget Sound area causing Seattle to have the some of the worst air quality in the world.

Then in mid-October the 2,000-acre Nakia Creek blaze ignited north of Camas forcing nearby residents and those in a corrections facility to evacuate. It spewed layers of thick suffo...