 WILLIAMS — Kaibab National Forest fire managers plan to initiate prescribed fire treatments on Monday, May 20, on the Three Sisters Prescribed Fire Project located just north of the City of Williams and Interstate 40, east of Airport Road, west of Highway 64, and along the north shore of Kaibab Lake. The planned ignition date may change should conditions not prove conducive for safety and smoke impacts. Crews are targeting a total of 2,245 acres on four units and anticipate ignitions to take up to three days, conditions safely allowing.Area residents and visitors can expect to see and hear a helicopter in the area as aerial ignitions will occur on portions of the burn. Citizens are strongly urged to refrain from using any type of aerial-drone systems near the active project area that could potentially interfere with aircraft operations. Approximately 70 personnel will be assigned to this fire, and fire managers will be in close contact with the National Weather Service for current and predicted weather before and during operations, as well as with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Air Resources Division who will be modeling and monitoring the smoke.
Smoke will be highly noticeable from the Williams area, particularly the H.A. Clark Memorial Field Airport, Kaibab Lake, Ash Fork, Red Lake, Valle, and portions of State Route 64 and I-40. Smoke can be expected to lift during the day, however cooler overnight temperatures may cause smoke to settle into low-lying areas surrounding the burn location. Fire managers are looking for winds out of the south/southwest to minimize smoke impacts to the City of Williams.
No road or trail closures are planned as part of the Three Sisters prescribed fire project. However, during operations, fire personnel and vehicles will be visible to the public. Visitors to the Kaibab Lake area need to be especially cautious and aware during and in the days following ignitions for their safety. Motorists are reminded to use caution and drive with heightened awareness when passing through active project areas.
Fire managers recognize that community members may be sensitive to smoke and use strategies to limit the amount and duration. This includes dividing large projects into smaller units so that crews can focus efforts where and when conditions will help smoke disperse away from developed areas and ventilate quicker, reducing the impacts to local residents and businesses. Prescribed fires with shorter-term impacts to air quality help significantly reduce the risks to public health and safety.
Goals of prescribed fire treatments include decreasing the threat of unnatural severe wildfire and potential negative consequences to the community, improving forest health, and reintroducing fire to an ecosystem that relies on frequent fire to maintain resilience. Prescribed fires help reduce hazardous fuels that have accumulated due to drought, climate change, insects and disease, and decades of fire suppression. Fire also recycles nutrients back to the soil, promotes the growth of trees, wildflowers, and other plants, and improves habitat for threatened and endangered species. Our land management strategy is centered on long-term forest health, including reducing forest fuels and using prescribed fire on the landscape. These efforts align with the Forest Service’s 10-year Wildfire Crisis Strategy which aims to increase prescribed fire and other treatments to improve forest resiliency for generations to come.
All prescribed fires are subject to approval by an agency administrator and by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. The department’s Air Quality Division: Smoke Management webpage provides details about its air quality program. To learn more about smoke and public health, visit bit.ly/SmokeHealthAwareness.
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Additional information can be found on the Kaibab NF website, X, Facebook, Flickr, or by contacting local ranger stations.
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