Steep, rugged terrain is slowing down progress for the more than 500 personnel fighting the nearly 16,000-acre Dollar Lake Fire about 40 miles north of Pinedale.
The fire continues to move, however, burning southeast along the western edge of the Green River Lakes and within sight of Squaretop Mountain.
It’s also one of the reasons why the Type 3 wildfire incident management team in charge of the fire is reporting containment at just 31%.
Especially the northern perimeter of the fire “is severely snagged and steep,” said incident commander Rich Hayner during a Wednesday night community meeting to update locals on the firefighting efforts.
It also was welcome last week when “the rain came, but it put (a lot of water) into a lot of tough country where there’s snags, steepness, all that,” he said about the dampness hindering movement on the ground.
“The rain we had last week definitely helped slow down the progression on the fire and it also slowed down some of the operations,” added Tyson Finnicum, spokesman for Wyoming Team 2.
He also said that the 31% containment that’s being reported doesn’t mean the fire is out of control or untouched in areas.
“That percentage doesn’t mean there’s not a line around the fire,” he said. “We have some level of line around a majority of the fire.
“Once we have that initial line in, we’ll create depth on that line inward.”
More containment is expected to be announced in the next couple of days, Finnicum said, adding that so far, no structures have been lost.
Burning Toward Porcupine Pass
While the northern border of the Dollar Lake Fire is contained, it continues to move southeast toward Porcupine Pass, Hayner said. It’s burning along the western edge of the Green River Lakes within sight of Squaretop Mountain.
The fire has “progressed further into the Bridger Wilderness Area west along the Green River Lakes,” according to a Thursday incident management team status report. “Fire managers are actively evaluating tactics with the highest probability of success for managing the fire in the wilderness.”
Crews are working to shore up a fire line between Little Sheep Mountain and Big Sheep Mountain. When that’s done, they’ll conduct strategic burning from there to the southeast perimeter of the fire.
That’s where most of the fire growth is happening, Hayner said.
“Coming down the Porcupine drainage in the wilderness, (it was) so steep there the hotshot crews, who are the best of the best, were saying, ‘Absolutely not,’” Hayner said.
In another seven to 10 days, the fire is expected to string down to Porcupine Pass, he said, adding that “we just cannot pick up a good line yet.”
Hunting Impacted
Along with thousands of acres of forest burned and an ongoing evacuation zone around the Dollar Lake Fire, even more area has been closed to the public by the U.S. Forest Service.
That’s impacted access to prime hunting areas, something Hayner said he’s keenly aware of.
“Most of our team is from Wyoming, and we want to get you back to your normal life,” he said. “We want to have you guys going up, getting into the hunting season.
“Everyone’s missing hunting season, so I know how important that is in the Wyoming way. We are trying our hardest to get you back into your normal rhythm.”
One of the reasons people can’t get to their favorite hunting grounds is because of road closures in the area, Finnicum said. Those are necessary because of the large number of vehicles and equipment being moved to fight the fire.
“A large portion of the fire area on Forest Service land is closed to the public, so that obviously impacts access into that area,” he said. “Right now, we have over 500 people working the fire. As you can imaging, there’s a lot of traffic coming in and out.”
What About Willow Creek?
While progress has been slowed on the Dollar Lake Fire, the Willow Creek Fire burning southwest of it near Smoot is at 43% containment and turning a corner.
“Progress is being made on the fire,” said Nevada Team 2 spokesperson Beth Young. And like with the Dollar Lake Fire, “we have been getting inquiries about hunting in the area.”
To that end, she said that starting Friday, the Forest Service is going to shrink the closure area to allow for “a little more access.”
Young also urges people to have patience and not cross into closed areas to hunt, because “it’s not worth anybody’s life.”
She said more rain is in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, which will help knock down the fire. Also, firefighters are ready for anything that may flame up.
“We have several crews actually spiked out around the fire so they can get right on the attack as soon as they have breakfast,” Young said.
Also good news for folks living in and around the Willow Creek Fire is that all previous evacuations have been lifted.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
