Wildfire Season Greeted with Wariness By Mary Manning Federal wildland fire experts are casting wary eyes to the skies as the threat of summer lightning could trigger forest fires or blazes racing through dry brush over thousands of acres. This year, after three dry winters in a row, and with warm and dry conditions forecast for the future, fire officials are not counting on Lady Luck. Each summer Nevada faces a potential for devastating wildfires. Dry winters suck moisture from the forests in the high country, raising the chances of flames like those that destroyed 254 Lake Tahoe homes in June 2007. Wet winters also pose dangers from widespread growth of highly combustible cheatgrass across Nevada?s rangelands, raising fire dangers there. ?In 1999 a series of lightning storms ignited blazes across the state, burning a record 1.8 million acres. Last year a series of intense thunderstorms triggered lightning-caused wildfires, burning more than 1 million acres.? While eastern Nevada is receiving above-average snowfall and spring rains, areas at Lake Tahoe, the Carson Range and other Sierra Nevada terrain are parched. Southern Nevada isn?t immune from the threat of wildfires. The Spring Mountains, including Mount Charleston, where about 400 people live in log cabins and luxury homes, is battling beetles, drought and diseased trees. Dried brush covering marshland in the Las Vegas Wash on the eastern side of the Las Vegas Valley has been known to burst into flames, creating black smoke that travels for miles. Southern Nevada typically gets 150 fires per year that burn 3,000 acres of public lands, according to Rex McKnight, Nevada fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management. Read the rest by subscribing to NWW! © 2009 joyce communications