The 2019 Washington wildfire season officially began in March 2019.

Government preparation

In January 2019, the

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) manages over of forest, range, agricultural, and commercial lands in the U.S. state of Washington. The DNR also manages of aquatic areas which include shorelines, tidelands, lands und ...

Hilary Franz Hilary S. Franz (born July 1, 1970) is an American politician and conservation attorney serving as the 16th Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands since 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party who was previously a member of the Bain ...

proposed a $55 million, 10-year plan to combat fires that included greatly expanded budgeting for 30 new full-time and 40 seasonal firefighters, new training academies, new firefighting equipment including aircraft, and a new "

rangeland Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas ...

" firefighting plan for the state.

Environment

Drought conditions existed in over half of Washington counties in May 2019. Many water basins were at half their median snowpack level, and the state overall was at its fourth lowest level in 30 years according to the

Washington State Department of Ecology The Washington State Department of Ecology (sometimes referred to simply as "Ecology") is the state of Washington's environmental regulatory agency. Created in February 1970, it was the first environmental regulation agency in the U.S. predating ...

Fires and smoke

There were 24

Western Washington Western Washington is a region of the United States defined as the area of Washington state west of the Cascade Mountains. This region is home to the state's largest city, Seattle, the state capital, Olympia, and most of the state's residents. The ...

wildfires reported before the spring equinox, including a blaze near

Mount St. Helens Mount St. Helens (known as Lawetlat'la to the indigenous Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat) is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United St ...

that heavily damaged one structure. The 243 Command Fire was the first large fire of the season. It began on June 3 near Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River in Eastern Washington, and by June 5 had grown to , causing mandatory evacuations near Beverly, and made

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

s air quality the worst in the United States.

References

External links

Washington wildfires
Washington State DNR

Wildfires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

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