Don’t douse WFUs

The fire didn’t do what the experts thought it would.

Fires often don’t.

But the unexpectedly rapid growth of the Big Sheep Ridge fire in the Wallowa Mountains on Sept. 28 should not discourage the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest from continuing its policy of letting certain lightning-caused fires burn.

The Wallowa-Whitman’s policy for wildland fire use — WFU — applies only to fires that are started by lightning in the Eagle Cap or the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.

The forest has allowed at least one blaze to burn in the Eagle Cap in each of the past seven summers.

The Big Sheep Ridge fire, at 3,000 acres, is the largest.

Forest supervisor Steve Ellis’ decision to let that fire burn after it was started on Aug. 29 was reasonable.

Aug. 29 is relatively late in the fire season. Yes, big fires can happen in September and even, rarely, in October. But the odds are slim indeed that a fire in the high country will gain much momentum in September.

The Big Sheep Ridge fire actually is a good example — it did little but smolder for almost all of the month.

If not for the exceedingly abnormal confluence of weather on Sept. 28 — Saharan humidity combined with 50 mph winds and 80-degree temperatures — the fire almost certainly would have fizzled after the first significant snowfall.

Fortunately, the temperature plummeted and the humidity rose before the flames damaged any private property.

A WFU in the Elkhorns in 1996 did scorch private land. There hasn’t been a WFU in the Elkhorns since.

But the policy, as applied in the Eagle Cap, remains sound. We should continue to let fire perform its historic roles there, including reducing fuel loads and thus cutting the risk of future blazes. That’s wiser, and cheaper, than opening the federal checkbook every time we see smoke.