Timber

Officials on the Tongass National Forest are restricting logging activities because of the hot, dry weather and some lightning strikes in the region.

The forest has been placed on “Hoot Owl” restrictions, effective Friday May 22^nd. That means some logging work cannot take place during the afternoon and evening. The limitations are in place for the Craig and Thorne Bay districts on Prince of Wales Island along with the Wrangell ranger district.

Ted Sandhofer, a timber sale contracting officer for the agency, says those are the only districts where logging companies are currently active.

“They can only haul, load and do some road construction work,” Sandhofer says. “They can’t fall or yard within that time period, and they also have to have some fire watch people during that high temperature zone between 12 (p.m.) and 8 (p.m.)”

Sandhofer says the restrictions will continue until the region sees some rain. It’s also possible all operations could be shut down if the hot, dry weather continues. Sandhofer says he hasn’t seen that kind of restriction during his career on the Tongass, but he did say the Hoot Owl notice is earlier this year.

The Tongass has had two confirmed fires on the forest from lightning strikes. Tristan Fluharty is the Forest Fire management officer for the Tongass.

The fire near Ketchikan is small, just a 10^th of an acre. However it is unusual for lightning strike fires on the rainforest and especially for such a long, dry spell this early in the year.

“We’re kind of in unprecedented territory as far as the weather is concerned,” says Tristan Fluharty, Forest Fire management officer for the Tongass. “And the big thing is on the forest here the majority of fires are human-caused fires, and a lot of those human caused fires are abandoned camp fires. So we are really asking folks to take a little extra time and make sure their campfires are dead out before they leave them.”

The forecast for the region remains warm and dry.

Juneau Fire Marshal Dan Jager is urging Juneau residents to be careful with barbecues this weekend. He’s also discouraging residents from starting campfires or doing any open burning until Juneau gets more rain.

“If people don’t have to burn, please don’t,” Jager says.

He says there’s an extremely high danger of fire.

“As everyone knows, for the last week and a half, we’ve had some real sunny, great weather here in Juneau,” Jager says. “However, with that, it has also really dried out the ground, the grass, the trees, and everything around us.”

Jager says there is no current ban on open burning, but even those who are careful and obtain a burn permit can be issued a citation or held responsible if a fire gets out of control.

“If it’s determined that because of their fire, it caused a grass or brush fire and damaged property, they could be liable for it whether they intended for it to happen or not,” Jager says.

Editor’s note: photo caption updated to remove outdated information on the current state of the fire when the photo was taken.