Hot and Dry Alaskan Summer

We often tell visitors that we live in one of ‘the coldest AND hottest’  places on the planet. Interior Alaska often has short – hot snaps – in the summer when the temperatures reach the 80’s or 90’s. This year we are certainly validating this, as it was 89ºF yesterday afternoon.

The primary concern that comes with these hot and dry days are wildfires. About 50% of these are a natural phenomenon that are usually caused by lightening and actually much of the ecosystem and vegetation in Interior Alaska is fire dependent. But you can guess who causes the other 50% of the fires: “Hey Bob – let’s go cook some hot dogs on an open fire today….” “Duh, great idea! And we can shoot fireworks while we burn our dogs.“)

Alaska is divided into Fire Management and Suppression Categories:

• Basically from: “Holy Cow! PUT THAT FIRE OUT NOW!” to “Yea…. we can just let sucker burn.“

The actual terminology for the Four Management Categories are:

• Critical
• Full
• Modified
• Limited

All land is classified so that if (or when) a fire occurs the correct Management options is already known. These classifications  have to do with human population centers, critical resources, structural resources,  property and more. HERE IS A MAP of the state with the designations. The State and federal agencies all work together (peacefully or not… I don’t know) and fight the fires that are most critical and monitor the others. As of this morning, there were 454 wildfires documented in the state this year and have burned about 450,000 acres.

As you can see in this photo. SP Kennel is in between several fires. We are located at the . The city of Fairbanks is to the west of the star. As of this morning there were 4 firefighters and several helicopters on the “Nugget Creek” fire (east of us), 146 firefighters on the “Caribou Creek” fire (north of us) and 550 firefighters on the “Shovel Creek” fire (west of us). The fires just to the south of us are not currently manned. There have been some evacuations due to the “Shovel Creek” fire. That is over 50 miles from SP Kennel.

Currently there are no orders for evacuation preparation in our neighborhood. But, since we have been in this situation before (6 years ago) we decided to implement Level One (READY). Therefore we are completely ready to evacuate the dogs. We have crates, dog boxes, picket lines, health care and feeding supplies and one truck set aside for evacuation. There is a printed evacuation plan in the Dog Barn, Dog Room and house. We will keep this set up at Level One (READY) at the center of the SP Kennel property for the summer. We hope to never implement Level 2 (SET) or Level 3 (GO) but … you never know.