Meager snowfall for the third season in a row has local fire authorities looking to the upcoming fire season with mixed feelings.

“It’s really your best guess,” Pete Anderson, State Forester of the Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF), said of the upcoming fire season. “We have to go year to year because it’s just not easy to predict with weather and climate change. Last year was set up to be bad, but the lightning struck in California and not Nevada.”

Last year, there were 443 fires in Nevada, burning 71,909 acres, which Mike Dondero, State Fire Management Officer for the NDF considers a “slow fire season.” In 2007 there were 888 fires, burning more than 890,000 acres, making it the fourth largest fire season. However, 1999 still remains the worst fire season on record, burning more than 1.6 million acres, according to the NDF.

“Ninety-nine was popping lightning all over the state,” said Mark Struble, Public Affairs Officer for BLM Nevada. “When you are in the driest state in the union and then you are in a drought, you’re in trouble. You just pray for a low-lightning frequency.”

Although lightning adds to the fire danger in Nevada, drought is the biggest reason for rampant wildfires, according to Struble.

“More moisture is always better,” Struble said. “Ideally, we would like a good snowpack in places like Tahoe. If we can get five to six feet up there it will last until July. When we look at fire danger we measure it partly by fuel moisture and more water is good.”

Struble explained fuel moisture in terms of the burning capacity contained in sagebrush, timber and grass. During droughts, timber becomes a more severe fire hazard due to its ability to burn for long periods of time.

“We call this 100-hour or 1,000-hour fuels because they burn forever,” Struble said. “This is the kind of danger in places like Tahoe. These smolder forever and they are very hard to put out.”

Struble added that years of high moisture can also be dangerous because of abundant growth in grasses that dry out by summer. However, he said, he prefers moisture.

“I would never wish that we would stay in a drought just to avoid those grasses,” Struble said. “More moisture is better. Much, much better.”

With the recent influx of moisture in the area, Dondero is more optimistic about the upcoming fire season.

“To predict the upcoming fire season at this time is very difficult,” Dondero said. “I can say that the recent moisture and snow accumulations in the mountains has improved our water outlook.”

Dondero explained that the vegetation in the mountains is in need of moisture to ward off disease and beetle attacks. Without moisture, the vegetation dies and becomes a fire hazard.

“We have crews working year-round thinning the forests and clearing brush,” Dondero said. “The snow does slow them down but I would rather have the moisture.”

Other fire authorities, like Bob Sommer, Forest Fire Management officer for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, believes that the most efficient moisture to help reduce fire danger is rain.

“The spring rain is what counts for as much or more than snow cover,” Sommer said.

However, Ed Smith, Natural Resource Specialist for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, believes recent moisture is a double-edged sword.

“When you have a prolonged drought like the one we’re in, the concern is that plants like sagebrush will get drought stress and can burn easily,” said Smith. “But even in wet years, grass grows so fast and like cheatgrass, its green in the spring but by summer it is brown and can burn easily. Either way we’re in trouble.”

Despite Nevada’s constant fire danger, Anderson still believes that “one thing that can be controlled is people.”

“If people could just remember to put campfires out that would lessen the number of fires,” Anderson said. “Waterfall (2004 fire in Carson City) was started by an unmanned campfire.”

Local programs are working hard to educate the public on fire safety and prevention. For instance, the NDF is urging citizens to apply for the 2009 Wildland Urban Interface grant before March 27. This grant will aid on-the-ground hazardous fuels reduction projects within the community. Living with Fire interagency program is also planning a wildfire awareness week, May 3-9.

“Most of the fires near homes are started by embers,” Smith said. “Embers can be carried a couple of blocks to a few miles. There are a number of simple things that homeowners can do like put lids on their garbage cans, clean pine needles out of rain gutters and move wood piles away from their homes.”

Sparks Fire Depart-ment Division Chief Bill Finley also believes that people need to be more aware of the fire danger and prevention in Nevada.

“As spring approaches, I encourage people to clean around their house,” Finley said. “Hillside developments are more susceptible so people need to be sure to prepare their defensible space.”