Northern Nevada at above normal wildfire risk

A chunk of western Nevada already had above normal wildfire potential when local, state and federal agency heads at the Capitol on Tuesday briefed Gov. Joe Lombardo on fire season.

Dry fuels, carryover grasses from last year, and thunderstorms without significant rainfall are all contributing to wildfire potential. However, interagency cooperation will meet the challenge, officials said.

“Resources are limited,” said James Settelmeyer, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “We need to work with one another, and it’s most cost-effective to work with one another in order to extend those resources.”

To that end, Settelmeyer praised Lombardo for recently approving Senate Bill 19, which, he said, “allows us to have interstate fire compacts with other states.”

Presented at the meeting, the National Interagency Fire Center’s outlook showed wildfire potential in western Nevada in June expanding across Northern Nevada in July and persisting through September.

Last year, 103,595 acres burned, Nevada State Forester and Firewarden Kacey KC reported.

“Just to remind ourselves that we have had five slow fire seasons,” KC said. “Over the last five years, we burned about 578,000 acres, and our average per year is about 450,000 acres. So, we may have a bigger year this year.”

As of Tuesday, KC said, Nevada had 137 wildfire starts in 2025 with only 592 acres burned.

Lombardo pointed to the Davis Fire from September 2024 as an example of effective cooperation. Believed to have sprung from an improperly extinguished campfire (according to Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue), the blaze started in north Washoe Valley and consumed more than 5,800 acres and more than a dozen structures.

Emergency response during the Davis Fire included evacuations in south Reno. No lives were lost.

Lombardo said preplanning is “probably the most important thing you can do when you’re dealing with a crisis.”

“And there’s no truer test than how we responded to the Davis Fire,” he said.

U.S. Humbolt-Toiyabe Forest Supervisor Jon Stansfield spoke on preventive work, resilient landscapes and 136,066 acres of forest treated in 2024 through hand-thinning, prescribed burns, fuelwood removal and other measures.

“A lot of those projects aren’t just meeting hazardous fuels reduction goals… they’re also improving wildlife habitat, improving forest health,” Stansfield said, “so when we talk about being efficient, a lot of these projects are hitting multiple objectives.”

Lombardo asked if the sawmill — operated by Tahoe Forest Products on Washoe Tribe land south of Carson — helps with fuel reduction goals.

Stansfield answered it does help. He explained the sawmill facilitates a market for smaller-diameter timber targeted in thinning operations “when you are trying to raise the canopy base height.”

“I think they have an important role to play there,” Stansfield said.

For wildfire preparation, go to livingwithfire.org.