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BLM AFS, USARAK to burn debris piles on Interior Alaska training lands

By BLM Alaska Fire Service on September 20, 2019

The Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (BLM AFS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Alaska (USARAK), will burn piles of woody debris on military training lands in Interior Alaska starting as early as this Saturday. Burning operations for piles on the Fort Wainwright Area Main Post (FWAMP), the Tanana Flats Training Area (TFTA) south of Fairbanks and the Yukon Training Area (YTA) east of North Pole may start as early as Saturday, Sept. 21 and may continue, as conditions allow, until Oct. 31. Piles within the Donnelly Training Area (DTA) south of Delta Junction could start as early as Oct. 5 and may continue until Nov. 27.

The roughly 1,550 piles targeted for burning are located:

FWAMP: Between Chena River and Birch Hill and on both the east and west side of the Ladd Airfield approach
TFTA: On the Salmon Loaf Landing Zone, 9 miles south of Fairbanks
YTA: Several locations between 5 miles north and 15 miles east of Eielson Air Force Base
DTA: Several locations between 15 miles west and 8 miles southeast of Delta Junction

Hand crews from the BLM AFS, USARAK, and Fort Wainwright Department of Public Works created these piles over the past few summers as part of several hazardous fuels reduction projects conducted to reduce the risk of wildfire on military lands.

The piles will be ignited when weather conditions will minimize the impact of smoke on populated areas in accordance with open burn approvals issued by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC). The BLM AFS and USARAK are working with the ADEC and the National Weather Service to forecast and monitor smoke conditions to ensure compliance with all local, state and federal regulations governing air quality. No piles will be burned within the Fairbanks North Star Borough PM_2.5 Nonattainment Area during burning restrictions.

For more information about the prescribed fires on Fort Wainwright lands, contact the BLM AFS Dispatch Center in Fairbanks at (907) 356-5555 or BLM AFS Public Information Specialist Beth Ipsen at eipsen@blm.gov or (907)388-2159.

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