Swan Lake fire

        After a summer of fire closures, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is opening up personal use firewood collection starting on Tuesday.

Woodcutting will be permitting along Swan Lake, Swanson River and Funny River roads, within the Dolly Varden Campground, and the unburned areas within the Upper and Lower Skilak campgrounds.

All harvesting is limited to dead and downed trees within the designated areas, and no standing trees, dead or alive may be felled. No off-roading or ATVs are allowed.

      The U.S. Small Business Administration is offering low-interest federal disaster loans for working capital to small businesses economically harmed by the Swan Lake Fire.

SBA acting Administrator Christopher M. Pilkerton announced the action taken under the agency's own authority to declare a disaster following a request received from Gov. Dunleavy on Oct. 2.

        More wilderness area is being reopened to the public in the aftermath of the Swan Lake Fire.

The Chugach National Forest is rescinding the previously closed areas of the Chugach National Forest impacted by the Fire. This reopens the south portion of the Resurrection Pass Trail, West Swan Lake, Swan Lake, Juneau Lake, Romig, and Trout Lake cabins, and surrounding areas. All areas, cabins, and trails are now open on the Seward Ranger District.

With the reduced fire danger and winding down of fire operations, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has re-opened several more recreational facilities previously closed due to the Swan Lake Fire. The Vista Trail, Doroshin Bay Cabin, Hidden Lake and Hidden Lake Campground are open, as is the East Fork Moose River.
    The designated closure area originally established around the fire is also being reduced to the perimeter of the Swan Lake Fire as it was on Sept. 30.

        Rain over the weekend has helped the crews on the Swan Lake Fire continue to mop up work on the perimeter of the blaze.

In the most recent report from Rick Connell, the incident commander for the Type 2 Northern Rockies Team 4, says fire suppression repair work is being done on all but the north side of the burned area. That includes brush chipping and cutting fire weakened trees along roadways. In areas where the fire reached roads firefighters will continue to monitor for fire weakened trees falling and cut them as needed. 

The change of seasons and what might be the first big storm of the fall has incident commanders working the Swan Lake Fire optimistic that it will not flare up again as it did once before.
    As a result, all evacuation alerts around Cooper Landing were removed this (Tuesday) morning, and all but one channel of the Upper Kenai River has been reopened to public use.
    Emergency planners do caution Cooper Landing residents to remain aware and prepared however, until a season-ending rain storm comes.

There are 305 personnel fighting the Swan Lake Fire burning between Sterling and Cooper Landing. The blaze has not changed in size appreciably in a couple of weeks, standing at 163,714 acres. Containment is 48 percent.

Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 4 Commander Rick Connell said work is still being done to reduce hot spots on the Resurrection and Fuller Lakes trails and cleaning up in and around Cooper Landing.

        An emergency order banning all open burning may have left some firefighters staying in camps in more remote parts of the Swan Lake Fire to eat cold rations and wear an extra sweater in the sleeping bag.

The burn ban, affecting the entirety of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, was strict enough that even cooking and warming campfires in crew camps were banned.

While fire and smoke across the Sterling Highway near Cooper Landing has occasionally forced road closures to motor vehicle traffic, when the Swan Lake Fire reached the Upper Kenai River, it was closed to boat traffic, and has yet to reopen.
Guides who work the Upper Kenai are usually very busy this time of year, according to Dennis Randa because it’s when the trout are feasting on sockeye salmon eggs.

The contingent battling the Swan Lake Fire is now at its highest level — even more than in July when over 500 firefighters were assigned to the blaze. Today, there are 671, with a half-dozen helicopters. Before flaring up a week and a half ago, about 20 firefighters remained.

Residents of Cooper Landing remain in the Level-2-Ready alert level for evacuation for a third day.