BOISE– Just over a week after the Soda Fire first sparked, it was listed at 95 percent contained Wednesday morning. A Burned Area Emergency Response team is now assessing damage and creating a plan for what happens next in the 285,361 acres burned.
Some Owhyee County ranchers believe the Soda Fire would not have grown to that size if more grazing had been allowed across the rangeland. Wyatt Prescott, executive vice president of the Idaho Cattle Association, said if cattle could graze more land, there would be less fuel for fires.
“Graze it, don't blaze it,” Prescott said.
“There was never any notice saying 'There is going to be a lot of feed out there, go utilize that feed' which later becomes fuel that really spreads these wildfires,” Prescott said.
The state director of the Idaho Bureau of Land Management, Tim Murphy, said the weather is to blame for the Soda Fire's spread.
“It was driven by extreme weather that we haven't seen in this part of the country in almost 90 years,” Murphy said.