Washington’s wildfire season doesn’t officially start until July, but a new agreement between Clark County and Washington’s Department of Natural Resources will help firefighters battle blazes throughout the region.
The Clark County Council unanimously approved the agreement, which allows DNR to set up a forward operating base at Camp Bonneville, at its April 5 meeting. This year marks the fourth year DNR has staged operations at the camp.
The agreement provides DNR enough space to house a helicopter and a fuel truck and building space for seven crew members. According to the state, having the helicopter operations based at Camp Bonneville will help improve wildfire response times.
“Wildfires scare everybody but especially those living in the forest or adjacent to it. The Yacolt Burn is a local example,” Councilor Gary Medvigy said, before voting to approve the agreement. (The Yacolt Burn was the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. Over two days in September 1902, more than 370 square miles, or 238,920 acres, of forest in Clark, Cowlitz and Skamania counties were burned and 38 people died, before rain finally put out the flames, according to DNR.)
During wildfire season, DNR takes its best educated forecasts of where it needs to forward deploy and ready assets — “especially their rotor aircraft, which provide the initial suppression and is critical to fighting wildfires,” Medvigy said.
“This is important for us and somewhat of a benefit, a blessing, to have DNR select one of our local sites as a forward operating base,” he said.
The Camp Bonneville operations are part of the state’s “Helitack” program, which is made up of small teams that provide initial attack capacity and aerial firefighting capabilities to wildfires throughout the state.
According to DNR, fire seasons have become steadily longer and more severe, creating a greater need for strategic predeployment of air assets.
Thomas Kyle-Milward, communications manager for DNR, said crews from Camp Bonneville have responded to 130 wildfires in Clark County since 2019, the first year of operations. The largest of these was the 2020 Fruit Valley fire, which destroyed 166 acres.
One issue the council wants addressed is community outreach, especially for those living near Camp Bonneville. Erik Harrison, parks and lands program manager for Public Works, noted that DNR handles outreach at the statewide level. The council asked that additional notification be sent to residents to ensure they are aware of the additional noise and traffic from DNR’s operations.
“Over the last few years, we have heard from neighbors who have been surprised, regardless of its preexisting status,” Councilor Temple Lentz said. “We do hear from folks who are surprised.”
Lentz said if DNR is doing a full outreach program, the county doesn’t necessarily need to do an extensive campaign of its own.
“We can always try to improve what we’re doing and build on success rather than assume what we’ve always done will always work,” she said.
Chair Karen Bowerman asked county staff to report back on DNR’s outreach program and what additional steps the county could take.
The full agreement is available at https://clark.wa.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/2022-04/SR055-22.pdf.
Clark County accepted ownership of the former military installation in 2011. Since then, the county has been working with the U.S. Army and state Department of Ecology to clean up the lead and unexploded munitions left over from nine decades of military training, with the eventual aim of opening it to the public. More information on Camp Bonneville is on the county’s website at https://clark.wa.gov/public-works/camp-bonneville.
