Yakima Herald: New program adds to state's prescribed fire capabilities
If it's going to achieve its forest health goals set out in an ambitious 20-year strategic plan released in 2017, Washington's Department of Natural Resources needs more Washingtonians capable of leading prescribed burns.
Trout Lake's Lucas King eagerly stepped up to the challenge, joining 20 other students at the agency's first certified prescribed burn manager course in Ellensburg last May. A few weeks later, he passed an evaluation on a small burn that served as part of a fuel break along the Goldendale/Glenwood Highway, allowing King to become the first fully certified member of his class.
