As temperatures finally start to warm up in the Northwoods, the risk for wildfires also rises.
Spring is typically the busiest time of year for wildfires in Wisconsin.
There’s a lot of dry fuels on the landscape during the period from when the snow melts until plants and trees start to green up.
On top of that, northern Wisconsin is largely experiencing drought conditions right now.
Majority of wildfires in the state are caused by people burning debris. There’s some added concerns this spring of more wildfires because of all the trees and branches that came down in the ice storm earlier this month.
James Barnier is the DNR Division of Forestry Forest Fire Protection Section Chief.
He told the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board that all of this combined could mean for a longer fire season this year.
“We have to mentally prepare ourselves that this is going for a long haul. It's not going to come out in May and say, ‘Well, it's great. Everything's greened up. We're good to go’. We're probably going to see a prolonged aspect of this again,” said Barnier.
There’s already been some sizeable wildfires in southern Wisconsin this year, including a roughly 800 acre one in Green Lake County.
Barnier says this fits with the trend that wildfires in Wisconsin are occurring in more parts of the year.
“Most of our fires occur in the spring, March, April, May. Right? That's the core where we see most of our fires. But with these droughty conditions that we're experiencing, we're seeing these fire staffing needs, requirements occurring more and more all year round,” said Barnier. “In fact, record year right for ’25. We've never had this many fires in January and February ever in the state of Wisconsin.”
The lack of snow the last two years has had an impact on this.
Barnier says staffing has increased 30 to 35 percent to cover the increased workload.
You can check current fire conditions and burn restrictions on the DNR website.
