As crews continue to battle wildfires raging across the state, the town of McGrath is preparing for major changes to its firefighting camp, which provides protection to an area in Western Alaska as large as New Mexico.
Sixteen of the camp's 22 seasonal positions are being cut July 1 as part of the Division of Forestry's attempt to reduce its budget in the face of a gaping $3.5 billion state deficit – a decision decried by some who argue it will hinder fire responses and harm McGrath's already dwindling economy.
"It's far from ideal," said forestry director Chris Maisch. "It's been very difficult; our division got hit really hard" by budget cuts.
Those 16 employees have received their pink slips, McGrath Mayor Dustin Parker said Thursday. Parker described the scene in McGrath on Thursday as smoky and hot. Aircraft crisscrossed the sky as crews responded to fires threatening some Western Alaska communities.
The McGrath camp is responsible for 88 million acres, making it the largest firefighting region in the state. The forward-operating camp is also the most expensive per employee, Maisch told Alaska Dispatch News in February. It consists of several stand-alone facilities requiring lots of maintenance, and workers in the remote village receive large cost-of-living adjustments.
McGrath is near the northern tip of the fire protection area, which extends west and south to the Aleutian Islands. Seventy active fires were burning in the zone Friday, according to Francis Mitchell, public information officer for the Division of Forestry, and crews were battling about six fires, including the North Aniak and Red Devil fires. To date, 236,000 acres have burned in the region, Mitchell said.
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Alaska's fire management zones. McGrath's forward-operating base covers the blue Southwest area (SWA), an 88 million-acre swath of land.
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The lost positions – including firefighters, an aviation supervisor and a suppression foreman – will be filled on an as-needed basis via a regional request system, Maisch said. And with this year's fire season in full swing, those positions will need to be filled as soon as the employees are off the payroll.
While the cut jobs will save the Division of Forestry over $842,000 in its annual budget, just how much money will actually be saved "in the grand ledger of things" is somewhat complicated, Maisch said.
That's because there are two pots of money that fund firefighting – a "preparedness account" included in Forestry's budget and a "suppression" account that kicks in after a fire has already started, Maisch said.
The 16 newly hired people will be funded through the suppression account, so while those costs won't show up in Forestry's budget, the money will still be pulled from the state's coffers. Some of that money may be reimbursed by the federal government, depending on whether federal land is burned in a given year, but that amount is a moving target, Maisch said.
Those 16 hires will be paid less, since they won't receive a cost-of-living adjustment, but there are no other cost savings associated with their employment. Only in slow years, if the staff doesn't need to be hired, will the state see the greater savings.
"In a slow year theoretically you're going to save some money," Maisch said. But "you're not going to save money in a busy year."
In response to criticisms the cost savings won't occur every year, Maisch said, "I didn't have a choice." He said the decision was the "least impact to the division" struggling with budget cuts requested by Gov. Bill Walker.
"It really hurt us and I can see it across the whole division this year," Maisch said.
In some cases, too, "you could spend (more) money … than if you had Alaskans filling those positions," Maisch said. That's due to the loss of local knowledge – Alaskans familiar with the terrain and unique geographical challenges – that could tack on additional costs.
"There's a learning curve, and a learning curve usually has dollars associated with it, in my experience," Maisch said.
Going forward, the McGrath forward-operating base will be managed from Palmer. Palmer state fire management officer Norm McDonald was in McGrath on Friday, preparing to take over responsibility for the Western region.
McDonald manages the Matanuska region, a 15 million-acre swath of Southcentral Alaska. In a few days, he'll also cover the Southwest fire protection lands, which comprise an acreage nearly six times larger than his current purview.
McDonald will split his time between the two areas, depending on need, he said.
McDonald is anticipating logistical challenges due to the changes. "Your flight times are extended, you've got weather concerns when you're flying through the Alaska Range …. (there's) potential for delays," McDonald said.
"Even finding fires will be a little bit delayed," McDonald said. Part of his job will be to monitor potential fire situations and mobilize crews to McGrath before a fire even sparks.
In Alaska, fire conditions have "just gotten worse," McDonald said. "Alaska-wide, this is something we're going to be dealing with."
With all the changes underway this summer, what's the plan for next year? "That's got to be figured out still," Maisch said. "Worst case, we'll operate the way we are these last two months."
The division will attempt to negotiate with the federal Bureau of Land Management's Alaska Fire Service to increase the acreage that the service covers in the region, Maisch said.
Other ideas for McGrath include creating an interagency base of some kind and perhaps engaging the private sector or school district. "That remains to be seen, and that's all got to be negotiated," Maisch said.
"It's an adaptive process, basically. Just like all firefighting is," Maisch said.