COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Forestry crews were on Tubbs Hill in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday burning several piles of tree and brush debris to mitigate fire risk this spring and summer.
Inland Forest Management is working with the Coeur d’Alene Parks Department and the Friends of Tubbs Hill to complete the project.
The afternoon’s thick fog kept the fire risk low.
“As far as the fuel conditions go, we’re not going to have any spread outside of the piles,” Inland Forest Management’s Rob Lionberger said. “They should stay contained in their footprint.”
Thursday’s fog, however, slowed worked down ever so slightly.
“We don’t want to produce too much smoke in these conditions where the air is settling and not moving out of the area very quickly,” Lionberger said.
Lionberger says the moisture in the air acts like a blanket, leaving the smoke with nowhere to go. In return, people should expect the smell to linger.
“They will smell some of the smoke. It’s going to smell more like a wet smoke in the evening,” he said. “This project could have been done in a day. Given the air quality concerns, we are going to take a couple of days to do it and just move a little slower.”
Foresters say if smoke is to linger, it is likely to do so around the waterfront and not over the heart of the city.
Friends of Tubbs Hill volunteers will be stationed near popular trailheads to alert hikers of any closures on Friday.
“There is a small chance of embers,” Lionberger said. “And rolling materials is the other concern.”
Fire mitigation work is expected to wrap up Friday.
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