Part 2: The Nature Conservancy forms new tactics to prevent eastern Washington wildfires

Editor’s note: This is part two of two, covering The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to curb wildfires. Look for part one here.

Restoration is one piece, though. Another is prevention.

In July, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) followed the state Department of Natural Resource’s lead in closing the lands it manages in eastern Washington, said TNC media relations manager Robin Stanton. In addition to Hanson’s 30,000 acres, this includes 36,000 acres of Central Cascades Forest near Cle Elum.

The vast majority of these fires are caused by people, said Corinna Hanson, TNC’s Moses Coulee/Beezley Hills Preserves Land Manager. Anything can do it, from throwing cigarettes out a car window to even parking on tall, dry grass.

“Fortunately, most people in eastern Washington are hyper aware of the fire risk in shrubsteppe, so most folks who are on the landscape take extra precautions to not start wildfires,” she said, “but sometimes they can’t avoid it.”

The goal is to maintain the existing habitat and enhance the degraded habitat, she said. One prevention technique is targeted cattle grazing, which it has employed on both the Moses Coulee and McCartney Creek preserves.

In fact, cattle had just grazed the McCartney Creek area before the 2020 fire, which reduced its intensity, she said.

“Trying to control cheatgrass I think is just a huge priority for any land manager in eastern Washington,” she said

Cheatgrass causes fires to spread quicker, grow larger and burn more intensely, she said, but it will never be eradicated fully. There is, however, a point where habitat can become so degraded that it converts to grasslands. The goal is to prevent it from reaching that threshold.

TNC is part of the Arid Lands Initiative, an organization of nonprofits, government agencies and private landowners who identify projects to conserve lands in eastern Washington. Other partners include the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Pheasants Forever.

Recently, they created a new position, arid lands assistant manager, to head these fire restoration projects in the Moses Coulee and Beezley Hills areas.

TNC is currently organizing partners and developing strategies, Hanson said. Implementation begins this fall.

“Arid lands assistant manager has a big list, and so I’m excited and feel very fortunate that we were able to hire someone to help carry these projects forward and help share the workload,” she said.

All of this work, standardizing goals, organizing partners and developing large-scale restoration projects, are new, she said, a direct response to recent fire threats and the knowledge they are worsening.

TNC is not alone in this, Hanson said. Virtually every land manager in eastern Washington is recognizing the concern and is working to act upon it.

“With the trend with these warmer, drier summers, there is a longer duration of dry and hot conditions, too; in the face of climate change, there’s a real risk of the trend of wildfires getting bigger and more severe and more frequent continually, and that’s when I think everybody who knows the ecosystem and area in these communities come together,” she said. “This work is serious and it’s real and for folks whose lives are impacted by the fire, I think there’s real concern.”

With new funding, new staffing and new cooperation, the story around wildfires will continue to change, Hanson said. She maintains her hope for the future.

“Initially, after a fire burns through a piece of land and you see the smoke and dust and haze and you can smell it, that is where I feel the greatest sense of pessimism, because it’s just so real. You can just feel what happened out there,” she said. “But then spring comes, and the flowers start blooming, and you see signs of life out there, and there’s some growth coming back in the black.”