The US Forest Service is working to reduce fire hazards in the Black Hills by burning thousands of hand and machine slash piles.
Jared Hohn is the Deputy Fire Staff Officer for the Black Hills National Forest. Hohn says removing the slash piles reduces the fire load and makes room for more logging operations. He says forest supervisors wait for certain conditions to reduce potential hazards.
“We ensure that we have low winds. You know, we're not trying to burn in front of any frontal passage. We want to make sure that the piles stay within the footprint of the pile itself. We will have some smoke that will be visible in the air but typically in the black hills we don’t have very – too much smoke issues, but we’re trying to burn on days that prior to a snow event – would be ideal – so that we get some moisture on the piles themselves.”
Hohn says the requirements to burn slash piles are the same with private landowners.
He says burning usually takes place in December and March to keep fires safely contained.