Payette National Forest warns of above‑normal fire potential; urges early county coordination

Payette National Forest fire managers told the Valley County Board of Commissioners on June 9 that a combination of rapid snowmelt, above‑average spring temperatures and dry fuels points to an above‑normal wildfire season across the Payette and parts of the northern Great Basin.

The briefing, led by Patrick Shawn, fire staff, and McCall District Ranger Jess Osmondson, reviewed last year’s high lightning activity and this year’s current conditions. “This is the ERC or the energy release component. … how hard it is to put out fire once it starts,” Shawn said, explaining the metric the Forest Service uses to estimate resistance to suppression. He said high ERC values last July corresponded with a spike in ignitions and greater need for heavy aircraft and mechanized equipment.

The presentation put local conditions in regional context: the Payette recorded more ignitions than its 20‑year average last year (118 total starts in the dispatch boundary, 88 on Payette lands), and multiple weeks at elevated national planning levels strained available resources. “We went into planning level 4 and 5 pretty early,”…