Coeur d’Alene residents may have noticed the air quality index is forecasted to be in the 90s or seen some smoky skies. There are indeed fires, but they are part of scheduled prescribed burns in Bottom Canyon, east of Hayden Lake and north of Fernan Saddle, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

“Pile burning is a tool often used in the fall months to remove hazardous fuel (excess vegetation) from the landscape,” U.S. Forest Service Public Information Officer Kary Maddox said in an email.

Prescribed burns typically happen in the fall because conditions are much better for burning in the colder air and higher humidity.

In addition to mitigating wildfire risk, prescribed burns also have other ecological benefits. These include recycling soil nutrients, suppressing invasive species and encouraging future plant growth as some seedlings depend on the fire’s heat to crack open hard seed coats. 

They may also help local tourism economies by preventing wildfires and their smoke from reaching popular tourist areas.

“The current focus of the Forest Service work around Kootenai County is in the Wildland-Urban Interface to reduce the risk of wildfire to communities,” Maddox said. “Many other entities (county, state, tribal, industrial timber, and private citizens) also use fire as a management tool, and all larger projects are coordinated through the Montana Idaho Airshed Group.”