Clamps put on

campfires

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Restrictions on campfires and smoking in non-developed areas are set to go into effect Monday (July 31) in Northwest Montana as the hot and relatively dry weather continues.

Called Stage I Fire restrictions, they generally restrict campfires out of developed campsites as well as smoking on state, county and federal lands in Northwest Montana. That includes Kootenai National Forests, Glacier National Park, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation lands, and Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, and Sanders Counties. This also includes the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex (Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Great Bear Wilderness) lands on the Flathead, Lewis and Clark, Helena and Lolo National Forests.

Stage I fire restrictions allow:

€ Building, maintaining, attending or using a fire or campfire only in developed recreation sites or improved sites,

€ devices solely fueled by liquid petroleum or LPG fuels that can be turned on and off, including backpacker stoves and portable gas grills,

€ smoking only in an enclosed vehicle or building, developed recreation site or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable materials.

Contained wood stoves with spark arrester screens are allowed only in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

July actually has above normal precipitation, but most of that came in thunderstorms in the beginning of the month.

We've had thunderstorms in the region as of late, but little to no rain has been associated with most of them.

There have been several small fires reported in the past few weeks.

On Tuesday, crews were working on a small fire above Glacier Rim in the North Fork near McGinnis Creek.

The weather is calling for more temperatures in the 80s and 90s with a slight chance of thunderstorms.

The fire season here runs from now through August. The Missoula and Billings areas have already seen large fires this year.

Winds from a squall Monday afternoon knocked out power for a couple of hours at Glacier Park headquarters in West Glacier. Falling trees knocked out powerlines, hit a car and even started a small fire that was put out with an extinguisher when a tree hit a power box.

The storm brought virtually no rain however.

Last week saw temperatures in the high 90s.