DEER PARK, Wash. — All good things must come to an end.
That's also true of the bad things.
"We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst," Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said.
Franz joined leaders with regional fire districts Friday in Deer Park as they mark the near-end of fire season, one Franz says wasn't the worst.
"Just over 300,000 acres of land have burned across the state this year," Franz said. "It's one of the lower totals we've seen in the last decade."
With 1,400 fire starts statewide this year, 95% of them were under 10 acres. Washington's Department of Natural Resources has a goal of 90% of fires annually being less than 10 acres, a figure the agency has hit three years running.
Though the state did see big fires like Swawilla near Keller and Stehekin's Pioneer Fire, those stretched DNR resources, Franz said, though there are more of those resources, too.
"The moment smokes in the air, they're flying," she said of DNR planes and choppers.
The DNR now has 44 such air resources, the most in its history. State law now allows local fire districts to request and leverage those units much faster.
"It used to take around six calls, I believe. Now it's about three," Franz said.
"Without the DNR air assistance, we simply would've been without aviation support," Fire District 4 Chief Bill Neckels said.
Franz also highlighted fire mitigation and prevention efforts across the state over the last seven years, which she says are helping prevent more devastating blazes. More than 800,000 acres have been restored, with changes to legislation that allow prescribed burns.
Though she says there's more to do, including teaching more people to protect natural lands. The majority of Washington's wildfires are still human-caused.
That's especially true in western Washington, Franz said. That half of the state marked a not-so-good thing in 2023: more fires than in the eastern half for the first time ever.
Franz says more people are getting out into forests and, on the coasts, may not realize those woods are still susceptible to fire starts. She says western Washington's climate history, with cool and wet days into July, may have also lulled some into a sense of complacency. She says the area just saw fires begin in July when historically that didn't happen.
"They're not only less prepared for it, they're also more likely to be part of the cause," she added. "Debris piles, for example, still are our most leading cause of wildfires."
Franz has served as Commissioner of Public Lands for eight years, but didn't seek reelection and lost a bid for Congress earlier this year.
So, as Franz marks the last months of her time as leader at DNR, the work is far from done, even though fire season is. Almost.
"It's not over," she said. "It's not over yet. It's not over until it's over."