Manti LaSal National Forest will implement Stage 1 fire restrictions that will go into effect Friday, June 18 due to dry conditions around the area. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Public Affairs Officer, Samantha Stoffregen to discuss all the details.

“So these fire restrictions go into effect at 12:01 am Friday morning, and what that means is that you cannot be out disburse camping and put together a little fire with some rocks. It means your fire needs to be in a Forest Service built fire ring. You see them in Joe’s Valley, you see them up and down throughout Huntington Canyon. They are the cement-built fire rings or they are the metal stoves that are located at designated camping and picnic areas,” stated Stoffregen. Visitors may use a stove or grill that is solely fueled by liquid petroleum fuels. These fire restrictions apply to the entire Manti LaSal National Forest area.

It’s very important that campers never leave a fire unattended. “So some of the things you need to keep in mind, even in these designated camp fire rings is that if your camp fire is too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave unattended. You want to make sure that your flames stay low and to the ground. That you keep your trash debris, brush away from the camp fire ring because you can still have embers blow out of that campfire and now we may or may not have a wildfire on our hands because of that,” explained Stoffregen. Its important to pay attention to weather conditions and recreate responsibly.

The conditions around that area over the last few weeks have been very hot and dry. “It’s extremely dry. Typically, the fuel that is up on the forest like your super green flowers, your green grass, even the trees getting green – they are not getting as green as this year. So there’s not the moisture within those plants. So like with Bennion and with Pack Creek fuel types that typically slow down a fire initially those are getting burned through just because it is so dry,” said Stoffregen. The Forest Service are urging folks to make “fire sense” decisions that will drive down the number of human-caused wildfires.

For additional information on the Manti- La Sal National Forest, please visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/mantilasal