FIRE RESTRICTIONS ISSUED

The fiery heat of summer is fast approaching Southern Nevada, and public lands officials fear wildland blazes will strike sooner than later.

Officials for the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nevada Division of Forestry issued fire restrictions Friday in anticipation of the high potential for fires.

The U.S. Forest Service is expected to follow suit, by issuing restrictions on campfires in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area beginning May 23.

The restrictions were announced Friday at the Red Rock Canyon National Recreation Area fire station where firefighters staged a mobilization response to simulate how they intend to react to the season's first wildfire.

The fire restrictions announced by the BLM prohibit most wood-burning campfires. Campers can use gas-operated portable stoves or one that's fueled by jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel. The restrictions also prohibit smoking, except inside a vehicle, and fireworks or use of tracer ammunition on public lands.

"We want to get the word out to the public that fire season is around the corner," said BLM Fire Prevention Officer Greg Marfil.

He said firefighters have already had to deal with bush fires and spontaneous combustion of domestic horse manure that was dumped in the desert.

Chris Theisen, the U.S. Forest Service's acting fire management officer for the Spring Mountains, said he was amazed at how visitors to the recreation area leave campfires unattended.

He said the Forest Service fire restrictions will be issued about a week after the other agencies because the Forest Service is still conducting prescribed burns at night to reduce vegetation and natural fuel loads in the Spring Mountains.

The likelihood for fires at higher elevations is greater this spring than in lower elevations where lack of rain has caused growth of invasive weeds to be less prolific than in the past few years.

But there are plenty of so-called flash fuels in the lower elevations in the form of invasive red brome and cheat grass that can rapidly spread a lightning-sparked fire. In addition, the forecast for higher temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions make public lands in Southern Nevada ripe for wildfires.

Much will depend on what type of lightning strikes and where. Dry lightning, so-named because it strikes with little or no rain hitting the ground, is more of a concern than wet lightning, which accompanies enough rainfall to douse wildland fires, Marfil said.

"All hell broke lose" in 2005, Marfil said, because of dry lightning strikes on terrain topped with lots of invasive weeds.

Red Rock Canyon is still vulnerable to wildfires despite lightning strikes that left the landscape charred over the past few years.

"You've seen what happens," Marfil said. "We just can't lose any more. It doesn't recover as fast. It looks like an atomic bomb went off."

The BLM's Las Vegas Field Office oversees 3.5 million acres of public land and the Forest Service has an additional 369,000 acres in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area.

Last year 1,133 acres of public land burned in Southern Nevada compared to 49,000 acres in 2006.

During the benchmark year of 2005, as described by Marfil, wildfires consumed more than 167,600 acres.

Marfil said the message agencies want to get across is for the people to "enjoy the public land but be careful."

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.