Wyoming Spared Worst of Wildfire Season
Written by Andrew-Rossi on January 8, 2018
The June Fire, which burned west of Cody for several weeks and claimed over 1600 acres, was one of the few wildfires that Wyoming recorded that was of any significance in 2017.
State forester Bill Crapser says Wyoming had a comparatively moderate fire season as far as large fires last year. He says Wyoming recorded about 760 wildfires on federal, state, county and private lands last year. Those fires burned at least 212,100 acres of forest and prairie across the state.
But while the number of fires was above average for the state, he says most were quickly contained because of quick response, timely rain and no big wind events to drive the fires. The fires that burned the most acreage in the state were the Pole Creek fire in the Bridger-Teton national forest, which burned over 3600 acres; the Keystone Fire in the Medicine Bow National Forest burned just over 2500 acres; and west of Cody, the June fire burned over 1600 acres.
Yellowstone National Park recorded only eight fires that burned less than one acre in 2017.
