(GRANGEVILLE) – With the threat of
wildfire danger increasing rapidly throughout many parts of north central
Idaho, local land management agencies have teamed up to pre-position a “Task
Force” in Grangeville.
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In light of the high level of fire
activity across the western United States, wildfire response resources are
already stretched thin. It is becoming more and more difficult for local land
management agencies to quickly call in help from other areas. Even within the
local area, once firefighting resources are assigned to a fire, it is
time-consuming and may jeopardize progress on one fire to pull assigned
resources away to a new location.
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The Task Force resulted from a Tri-Region
agreement and ongoing collaboration among the major land managers in Idaho,
including the Bureau of Land Management, Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protection
Association, Idaho Department of Lands, Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Department of
Fish and Game, and U.S. Forest Service.
Development of Task Force teams is being adapted nationally as a
tactic where high-value initial attack resources are coordinated through
interagency agreements. These teams can move from incident to incident for
short durations to accomplish key or critical short-term objectives. In the
Grangeville protection area, fire managers have used this approach several
times over the past few years and have found the Task Force highly effective
and efficient in controlling a fire start that otherwise could have quickly
grown into a large incident.
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Land
managers urge the public to continue to follow Stage 1 Fire Restrictions
currently in effect in the Grangeville Fire Restrictions Area, Riverbreaks Zone
1 and Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and to pay attention to any changed
conditions in the future. Map and details: https://www.fs.usda.gov/nezperceclearwater