Mountains hold snow, good news

OLYMPIA – Mountains across the Pacific Northwest are packed with snow this spring, a year after bare slopes prompted warnings of severe water shortages in the Columbia Basin.

The abundance of snow should ease pressure on farmers, hydropower dams and wildlife, and may even delay the summer fire season, officials say.

Water watchers are quick to point out that heavy snow alone won’t stop all wildfires, but the snowpack levels are still a major improvement over 2005.

“It was so dry so early, hell, we were having fires in early February last year,” said Doug Sutherland, Washington state public lands commissioner.

Snowpack averages are well above normal in Washington, Oregon and Idaho this year, according to measurements by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service.

By contrast, Idaho was the leader a year ago with an average snowpack at 55 percent of normal, said Jon Lea, a conservation service supervisor in Portland, Ore.

“There’s no one that’s blowing the whistle or complaining that they’re going to have a bad year, by any means,” said Scott Pattee, a conservation service water supply specialist in Mount Vernon.

In all three states, federal officials say this is one of the best snow years since 1999, when the Mount Baker ski area set a single-season record with 1,140 inches of snowfall.

If not for rain in December and January, the ski area might have kept on pace for another snowfall record, spokeswoman Gwyn Howat said Thursday.

“There’s just a lot of snow up there in the mountains right now, which I’m sure the farmers are happy to hear – the farmers and the salmon,” Howat said.

That’s also true in parts of southern Idaho, where farmers could see some of the best water supplies since 1999 or 2000, said Ron Abramovich, a conservation service water supply specialist in Boise.

Land managers, however, still warn that winter precipitation doesn’t mean the wildfire danger will disappear.

The moisture may lead to thicker undergrowth, leaving more material to burn when it dries out in the summer.

“Drought or no drought, we’re going to have a fire season,” said Pat McElroy, Washington’s state forester.

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