Washakie County Firesmart has active projects in Washakie County, and, weather permitting, offers two services at no cost to home and cabin owners in the county who have approved Wildfire Mitigation Plans (WMP): tree pruning and pile burning.
Tree Pruning: Firesmart will prune the trees in your Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) within 30 feet of your home/cabin, as recommended in your WMP. The home or cabin owner is responsible for removing the cut limbs.
Pile Burning: If you have slash and debris piles resulting from your Firesmart activities, your county Firesmart coordinator is available to burn them.
A few reminders for home and cabin owners with piles to burn:
1. Flame lengths may be 10 to 15 times the height and length of the pile size. Example: If a pile is five feet tall and five feet wide, the flames could extend in all directions 50 feet or more, depending on wind. With this in mind, piles should be far enough away to avoid scorching standing trees, structures or other improvements.
2. After ignition, you will need to closely monitor slash piles periodically for the next few days, to ensure fire does not spread away from the pile location.
3. Debris piles should be compacted with as little air space as possible.
If you are burning your own piles, contact the County Fire Warden to inform them of the time and day you will be burning. The Washakie County Fire Warden phone number is: (307) 347-6379. Other county fire warden numbers are here.
Home and cabin owners should also consider spreading a seed mixture of native grasses and forbs on burn pile locations the following spring to help prevent introduction of noxious weeds.
To obtain tree pruning or pile burning services, all you need to do is submit a request to Washakie County Firesmart. You can use our contact form, send us an email, or call us at (307) 333-1098 (office), (307) 272-9533 (mobile). Your request should include your name and the location/physical address of your home or cabin. If you have not completed a WMP, please download and complete this form.
