Pile burning starts Friday at three White Mountains cabin sites

Smoke will rise over three backcountry cabin sites in the White Mountains National Recreation Area starting Friday, and the Bureau of Land Management is asking people not to call it in.

Crews will burn piles of unsalvageable black spruce at Eleazar's Cabin, Summit Trail Shelter and Wickersham Trail Shelter between Sept. 25 and Sept. 29, with the exact timing depending on weather and how dry the fuel is. Crews will stay on site throughout.

The piles are left over from last year's Obrien Fire, which started in spruce and hardwood forest east of the Summit Trail and closed a southwestern chunk of the recreation area in June 2025. That closure shut trails, public-use cabins, shelters and the Wickersham Dome Trailhead, including Eleazar's Cabin, and was lifted in August as the fire quieted.

Burning the piles now, the BLM said, lowers the risk in a future fire, protects nearby property and gives firefighters a safer corridor to work in.

The recreation area covers a million acres about an hour from Fairbanks, off the Steese and Elliott highways, with 13 public-use cabins and two trail shelters.

Smoke from prescribed burns can affect people's health, the agency said, and it pointed anyone with questions about smoke to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.