Ellensburg Daily Record: ON THE RIGHT PATH: Officials celebrate Forest Resilience Trail in Roslyn

Inside, outside, all around the town.

Congresswoman Kim Schrier joined with state and local officials in Roslyn on Thursday to dedicate the Forest Resilience Trail and celebrate the progress made in taking action against the threat of catastrophic wildfires.

It was a cooler trip this time, no doubt, for the 8th District lawmaker.

Schrier recalled a previous visit to the acreage that now hosts the new trail. It was in 2021, when Schrier watched — and took part — in a controlled burn on six acres in the Roslyn Urban Forest to get rid of its parched understory; the natural tinderbox that can supply fuel to wildland fires.

“Got all the fire-resistant gear on, used the driptorch — which I was very dainty with,” she said of the fuel-filled canister used to start prescribed burns.

“I was told I had to go a little faster,” she added.

Schrier recalled another tool that day that was totally hands-off — for her.

“Nobody trusted me with a machete,” Schrier said, laughing at the thought that she was more dangerous with that than a driptorch.

That day gave her a first-hand look at the danger of forest fires in one of the state’s most precarious locations for such disasters. Roslyn, Ronald, Suncadia and Cle Elum all sit within a designated Wildland Urban Interface, and prevailing westerly winds increase the likelihood that wildfires in the forested areas between Kachess Lake and Lake Cle Elum would burn through areas where the fuel load — leaf and needle litter, dead tree branches, downed logs, tree cones, stems, snags and grass — is high and unmanaged.

“Frankly, it gave me a really good sense, not just of what it takes to do a controlled burn, but what it takes to do everything that proceeds it,” Schrier said.

“Also I remembered how my eyes were stinging,” she told a crowd of more than two dozen gathered for the trail dedication, which included not only local firefighters but also representatives from the U.S. Forest Service and the Washington Department of Natural Resources. “It just gave me, I think, a very visceral appreciation for what you go through.

“This is nothing compared to a real wildfire,” she added. “I just want to thank you for putting your health, your lives on the line to do this very noble work.”

Chris Martin, fire emergency management coordinator for the city of Roslyn, noted the progress made on wildfires since 2017, when the Jolly Mountain Fire roared through the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. The blaze was ignited by lightning strikes in August and the fire raged for three months, burning more than 36,000 acres.

Three years earlier, another forest fire scorched 894 acres on South Cle Elum Ridge.

“A lot of work has gotten done since 2017 on the Cle Elum Ridge,” Martin said, and he especially noted the work undertaken by the Department of Natural Resources.

Roslyn Mayor Jeff Adams detailed the city’s own efforts with volunteers to reduce the risk of wildfire. He called out Doug Johnson, who had a plan for a volunteer program where residents would help other residents to firewise their neighborhoods or their alleys.

“And what this has turned into is an actual committee called the Roslyn Wildfire Committee,” Adams said. “It’s got 150 volunteers that joined this year. They’ve generated over 250 piles of debris that UKC Fuels did a fantastic job of cleaning out.”

UKC Fuels is an interagency crew that conducts prescribed burn operations in the Roslyn area and also runs a residential chipping program every spring and fall.

The prevention work has made a noticeable difference in town, Adams said.

Mitigation efforts started in 2017 in the wake of the Jolly Mountain Fire, he said, and has included the logging, mastication, and prescribed burns in the Roslyn Urban Forest (which includes 300 acres inside the city limits), as well as on private property, parcels owned by the Nature Conservancy, and other lands above Roslyn.

“Crews have made significant progress in improving the roads, the trails and conducting prescribed burns to reduce the fuels and give fire managers better opportunity in the future with the work we are doing today,” Adams said.

The Forest Resilience Trail offers a self-guided tour of the work, which Adams said will educate the public on the threat of wildfires.

Scott Robinson, Acting District Ranger of the Cle Elum Ranger District on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, agreed and said the new trail will help people learn how to reduce the risks of wildfires.

“Any buy-in that we can get as we move forward to address the wildfire crisis is awesome,” he said.

Robinson also detailed work done by the U.S. Forest Service, including the Lower Lake Cle Elum Fuel Break, a project to create fire-stopping gaps in forested lands from Salmon La Sac Campground south.

At the trailhead is a new kiosk built by Scout Starkovich for his Eagle Scout badge. It includes a trail map that shows the areas where prescribed burns have been undertaken since 2017.

Starkovich started the kiosk, which was completely funded by the city of Roslyn, in late May. He said he just finished the project Monday.

The work to reduce the threat of wildfires — which includes not only prescribed burns but also selective logging and mastication, fire workforce development, and the launching of a chipper program — was funded by $750,000 in Community Project Funding secured by Schrier to go toward improving forest health in Washington state.

“As my advisory panel evaluated dozens of possible community projects, this one really rose to the top in terms of how do we protect this fantastic historic town, at a place where it doesn’t pencil out for you to have the funds all by yourself,” Schrier told local and state leaders.

“Now we’ve got to do this everywhere in the country,” Schrier added.

The congresswoman also noted her introduction of the National Prescribed Fire Act, which calls for more investment in forest management by allowing an increased use of prescribed fires.

“And a lot of that is going to be in Washington state, because we are one of the most at-risk,” Schrier said. “We have some of the most at-risk firesheds in the entire nation. So we’ll see a lot of those dollars come back here.”

DNR Assistant Division Manager Mike Norris agreed.

The state agency has also spent millions of dollars on prescribed fires, training efforts, and funding crews, he said.

“This work is very important. It’s high profile,” Norris said. “It’s definitely on that pilot level of projects that we want to see other communities take on, as well.”