Fire At Fish Lake Has Not Been Declared "Out" But Not A Current Threat

Copper Valley Fire At Fish Lake Is No Longer Producing Smoke 

A lightning-caused fire is burning at Fish Lake. The fire covered 66 acres as of June 17th, 2022, according to Sam Harrel, Information Officer at the Alaska Division of Forestry.

It's burning in a "Limited Management Option Area," he said. 

There are four management options in Alaska for fire monitoring. (See the DNR chart and a summary of the descriptions of fire management options for each area, below. The "Limited" area is green on the map.) 

The Fish Lake Fire is on the south side of the West Fork Gulkana River. It's 11 miles due west of Mile 153 Richardson Highway. 

DNR says that a helicopter conducted some bucket drops on June 5th, when the fire was at 30 acres, to slow its growth. 

Sam Harrell added:

"With no values at risk in the area, no other action has been taken. There is a natural barrier between the fire and cabins on Fish Lake. On Friday June 10th, helicopter reconnaissance reported no smokes showing and the perimeter was mapped at 66 acres. Fire remains in monitor status."

The Fish Lake fire is in the green ("Limited") management area. (Map, DNR) 

ABOUT THE DNR FIRE RESPONSE MAP 

CRITICAL (Red)  

The DNR website says that "Critical" options includes "areas and sites where people live." The objective in these areas is for DNR  "to protect the area or site from fire." 

FULL (Orange) 

Native allotments are either "full" or "critical." So are recreation facilities or administrative sites, says DNR. In these areas, the objectives are to "control" wildland fires "at the smallest reasonable size" and protect natural resource areas. 

MODIFIED (YELLOW) 

DNR says in these areas" jurisdictional agencies...accomplish fire-related land use and resource management objectives." 

LIMITED (Green) 

"Limited is designed for broad, landscape-scale areas where the low density and wide distribution of values to be protected best allows for fire to function in its ecological role."