Upper Kittitas County Fuels Crew

04/08/2026

04/02/2026

03/31/2026

🔥 Prescribed Fire Operations Planned at Bear Mountain

You may have seen recent updates from the U.S. Forest Service about upcoming prescribed fire work in our region. As part of this effort, partners from The Nature Conservancy and the Forest Service plan to continue prescribed fire operations at Bear Mountain, including areas of both agency and Chelan-Douglas Land Trust land.

📅 When: Beginning Tuesday, March 31
📍 Where: Chelan Coulees (Bear Mountain) area south of Lake Chelan

Burning may last just a few days—depending on weather conditions.

🌲 Prescribed fire is an important tool used to:
• Reduce wildfire risk
• Restore healthier forests and shrub-steppe habitats
• Support resilient landscapes

You may notice visible smoke from Chelan, especially on active burning days. Fire crews carefully plan these operations to ensure they occur under safe weather and fuel conditions.

Thank you for helping us spread the word about this important work to care for the lands we all love.

11/18/2025

2026 fire hire is open. Located in Roslyn, Washington UKC staffs two type 6 engines for summer wildland fire response. If you are looking to get start your career in wildfire or expand your skills this is a great opportunity. For those who are Interested, please fill out a n application for the city of Roslyn found in the link tree in the bio and email them to [email protected].
Questions call Jonathan Goodwin, crew supt. UKC Fuels (253)- 442-3423

11/13/2025

UKC Folks have been hard at work completing 100 acres of piles on Cle Elum Ridge and the Roslyn Urban Forest.

In late October UKC partnered with The Nature Conservatory to complete 80 acres of hand piles and 10 acres of machine-built piles. The purpose of this project was to reduce risk of large wildfires impacting the communities of Roslyn and Cle Elum.

We finished Pile burning in the Roslyn Urban Forest with 10 acres of machine-built piles and 10 acres of hand-built piles. The purpose of this project was to reduce wildfire risk near the city of Roslyn. With burning piles close to town several precautions were put into place to make operations a success. The first consideration we took into place was the weather. We wanted to make sure we had adequate precipitation as well as favorable winds. The next thing we considered was the potential roll out near homes. We decided to construct a 300-foot fence as well as active patrol to ensure no structures would be impacted by our operations. We also established a night shift for this operation as well to look out for roll out followed by several days of patrol. Overall, all operations were a success and can't thank everyone involved enough for their hard work and dedication to these burns.

We'd like to thanks the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Congresswoman Kim Schrier, the U.S. Forest Service, Kittitas County Fire Protection District #6, Kittitas County Fire District 1, Cle Elum Volunteer Fire Department, Kittitas Valley Fire & Rescue- KVFR, Kittitas County Fire District 7, and the many others who have provided funding and support over the years.

- Strong Work

11/06/2025

As UKC Fuels Crews work to burn piles adjacent to the City of Roslyn today we thought it would be a good time to share an image from the US Forest Services' Priority Landscapes Treatment layer in the risk management dashboard.

Notice the Roslyn Urban Forest (RUF) is entirely red. We are pleased to say that with the pile bun today the crew has, over the past seven years, worked West to East and materially reduced that risk. Most of the RUF - all the bright red except for stream corridors - has been commercially thinned, brushed, and burned. Today's pile burn is removing large amounts of heavy fuels and will set the stage for a subsequent low intensity broadcast burn at a future date.

We'd like to thanks the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Congresswoman Kim Schrier, the U.S. Forest Service, Kittitas County Fire Protection District #6, Kittitas County Fire District 1, Cle Elum Volunteer Fire Department, Kittitas Valley Fire & Rescue- KVFR, Kittitas County Fire District 7, and the many others who have provided funding and support over the years.

And a large thank you to the citizens of Roslyn and neighboring communities who have supported the work, tolerated the smoke, and come to understand the need for change in our beloved forest.