Firefighters, cool wet weather combine to reduce wildfire activity in popular hiking, camping area near Fairbanks
The federal Bureau of Land Management this week will reopen portions of the White Mountains Recreation Area north of Fairbanks, due to hard work by firefighters and cooler wet weather that’s slowed down wildfire activity in the area.
The BLM closed the western portion of the popular outdoor recreation area in June, after lightning sparked the O’Brien Fire that’s since grown to about 8,000 acres. But firefighters successfully suppressed that blaze and two others nearby that have burned a total of 50,000 acres.
“We still have fire activity,” BLM spokesperson Teri Balser said Monday. “The O'Brien Fire, which started in the White Mountains National Recreation area on June 18th, is still burning.”
Balser says firefighters protected the area’s trails and cabins, and now they’re mainly monitoring the O’Brien Fire to keep it from flaring-up. She says successful suppression in that area led agency officials to decide to begin opening it back up, beginning with the Wickersham Dome Trailhead, near milepost 28 of the Elliott Highway.
“We have opened one mile from the Wickersham Dome trail head, mostly because we know the berries are out there and ripe, and you’d rather get to them before the bears do.”
Also on Monday, officials with the BLM Eastern Interior Field Office opened portions of the Summit Trail and Wickersham Creek Trail. Balser said three other areas will reopen on Friday.
“Starting just after midnight in the wee hours on Friday, the fire closure that extends out the Trail Creek trail towards Lee's Cabin and the Moose Creek Cabin will open as well as part of the Summit Trail that leads up to Wickersham Dome. So that opens quite a bit of area along that southern boundary of the White Mountains.”
Other areas will remain closed temporarily. But Balser says it’ll take a while for BLM to get staff back into the area to mark the closed trails.
“We are so low staffed,” she said. “It may take a while for us to get to those spots. So it's really gonna be up to people to know that they're not supposed to go beyond Wickersham Dome. And they're not supposed to go out on the Moose Creek Trail or down on the Wickersham Creek Trail Beyond Lee's Cabin.”
Balser cautioned there may be some hazardous spots in burned-over areas around the closed trails, including fallen trees and so-called hot-ash pits that may still have smoldering coals.
More information about the partial reopening of the White Mountains Rec Area is available online at akfireinfo.com.
