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N-Sid-Sen had one-acre fire, continues fire management
About 3 p.m., Friday, Aug. 16, Mark Boyd, managing director at N-Sid-Sen Camp and Conference Center of Lake Coeur d’Alene, and Skip Dean, maintenance coordinator, saw smoke on the horizon. They walked to the cove where they met the East Lake Fire District (ELFD) chief Dan Currie, who was at the boathouse. He also saw the smoke.
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About an acre of N-Sid-Sen’s forest burned Aug. 16, but it was out in a few hours. |
They determined it was on N-Sid-Sen property along the highway north of the cove. Dan called in the crews from the ELFD and the Idaho Department of Lands to fight the fire.
Mark, Skip and some of the fire crews diverted traffic coming from the south to turn around in the parking lot to go around the fire.
“A tree had fallen and hit another tree that fell on a power line and sparked the fire,” Mark said.
He then went to the cove and helped the pump truck pump water out of the lake and take it to fill fire trucks on the road. They fought the fire from the road and one of N-Sid-Sen’s service roads.
The fire started about 3 p.m. and power was restored by 5 p.m., so they could cook dinner for about 120 people at the Lady of the Lake family camp’s last evening.
The fire crews did cleanup into the evening, said Mark. They came back for the next few days to check.
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N-Sid-Sen fireboat and fireboat house is now an established part of the scene in the cove. |
“We lost about an acre of timber. Surrounding timber was also affected by smoke damage and the smoke drew bugs—pine and fir beetles,” he said.
Mark has been working with forester Steve Bloedal of Inland Forest Management for several years deciding what trees are beetle infested, diseased and dying.
They arranged with the state entomologist to set up posts with pheromones, repellant scents, to repel the bugs from the fire area.
Steve also has worked with Mark to bring in a state grant for $23,000 to help cover $26,000 to pay contractors to do fire breaks—removing shrubbery, flammable vegetation and small trees between big timber across the highway behind Syringa and on the camp side of the highway.
“That is part of managing the land for fire prevention and control—to slow the spread of any fire with the fire breaks,” said Mark.
He is also working with a logger at the south end of the property above the old Inspiration Point to remove dead and damaged trees, which can be sold to mills or chipped for use on the property.
In addition, in mid-September he was overseeing drilling a new well in the cove, replacing one built in 1969 that had silt seep in recently. The water from the new well will also be piped up to the reservoir. Once it is hooked up, the water system will be flushed, he said.
Mark added that N-Sid-Sen has space reserved by many groups steadily into the winter.
For information, call 208-689-3489 or visit www.n-sid-sen.org.
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