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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Some fire officials say recent rains could hamper the upcoming wildfire season.
Late-melting snow will help reduce fire danger in the mountains, but the rains have caused extensive growth of grasses and other wildfire fuels in the lower elevations.
U-S Bureau of Land Management Fire Manager Sheldon Wimmer said he sees wildfire threats from the Idaho state line to St. George.
In Washington County, cheat grass is averaging two-thousand pounds per acre. That's more than twice the eight-hundred pounds-per-acre average for this time of year.
B-L-M fire spokeswoman Susan Marzec said this fire season in the lower elevations could be as severe as 2002, when fires burned about 262-thousand acres in Utah.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
