Controlled burns to take place in Snyderville Basin and Summit Park areas

Image from prescribed burn at Park Ridge in the Dixie National Forest. Photo: Courtesy of Utah Wildfire Info

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Controlled burns will take place this month throughout the Snyderville Basin and Summit Park areas, according to the Park City Fire District.

The controlled burns are a wildfire mitigation effort to prepare for the start of wildfire season next month. The vegetation that will be burned was cut down last fall, and could act as wildfire fuel if not removed.

“One of the things you’ll notice with these columns of smoke that you see going up is we want them to go high, and we don’t want them to stay low and just smolder and make a lot of smoke for the community,” said Battalion Chief Mike Owens with the PCFD. “The companies that are out there doing the burns, the piles are wet, they sometimes take some encouragement to get going, which is good, because that means everything around them is going to take encouragement to get going as well. But once they get going, they do burn quite well.”

Similar Reads On TownLift

Until May 30, Summit County residents can apply here for a permit to burn clippings, bushes and remnants from tree pruning.