BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. — As the fight to put out the Park Fire continues, officials with Cal Fire and the United States Forest Services say they've made some efforts to treat the land in the area in the past. Due to terrain and private land ownership, there was no stopping this fire.
"So thick, heavily wooded, thick vegetation with a lot of live and dead fuel moisture components associated with it," said Cal Fire Captain Dan Collins.
While Cal Fire is taking the lead fighting this fire, the U.S. Forest Services is helping manage efforts on federal land.
"This is coming into the Lassen National Forest. It is coming into the Ishi Wilderness. Now, the Ishi Wilderness is about a 41,000 acre piece of land," said Adrienne Freeman with the U.S. Forest Services.
Cal Fire says one of the main issues the fire is growing so quickly is because of the lack of fire history in the area.
"Ten plus years there, thirty plus years in another area and then some of the areas zero fire history," said Collins.
Historic fire maps show the last big fire in the exact area was in the Campbell Fire in 1990. Other areas that recently burned near the Park Fire is the Dixie Fire in 2021, and the Camp Fire in 2018. Both fires burned well over 150,000 acres each.
In 2022, the governor's office announced a plan to expand the use of prescribed fires. Their goal, starting in 2025, is to burn 400,000 acres a year, with the help of state, federal, tribal, and local agencies. The U.S. Forest Services says this year, they've treated 405 acres in the Ishi Wilderness.
"We have increased scope and pace of fuels treatments immensely. We actually hit a record for prescribed fire acres treated last year. We're well on track to do that again this year," said Freeman.
CalFire also burned 600 acres last year where the Park Fire is now burning, but fire officials say the issue moving forward is access to certain areas.
"There's nothing that we can do since it's private land. We just encourage those landowners to go in there and then masticate and kind of, you know, open things up," said Capt. Collins.
ABC10 reached out to the governor's office for comment on forest management in the area moving forward but did not hear back.
