By JAYSON JACOBY

Baker City Herald

Matt Reidy would be quite a lot more worried about the threat of wildfires if he hadn’t just seen the outhouse that’s half-buried by snow.

It matters, too, that Reidy has recently strode through succulent grass that’s about as combustible as toilet paper during a cloudburst.

Reidy is the fire management officer for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

It is, you could say, an integral part of his profession’s creed to fret about the fire danger during times like these, when in the afternoons the temperature surpasses 90 and the thunderheads blossom over the mountains, malignant with the promise of lightning.

Reidy certainly respects lightning it ignites about eight of every 10 wildfires on the Wallowa-Whitman, after all.

But his concern is considerably less acute than normal on the eve of July, and that snow-encased outhouse and that lush grass help to explain why.

The woods are unusually wet for early summer, which means the likelihood that a lightning bolt will kindle a blaze, though not negligible, is relatively low.

andquot;We’re probably a good three to four weeks behind where we were last year at this time in terms of fire danger,andquot; Reidy said on Friday.

andquot;The live vegetation, so long as it’s green, it acts like a heat sink.andquot;

Trouble is, that grass won’t stay green all summer.

Once the sun has cured that grass to brown, it will serve as easily ignited tinder for lightning strikes as well as carelessly discarded cigarettes and untended campfires.

andquot;When those grasses cure out there is going to be quite a hazard,andquot; Reidy said. andquot;You’re going to have grasses that are four feet tall, so flame lengths are going to be much higher than usual.andquot;

Although thunderstorms spawned lightning strikes in Northeastern Oregon on Sunday evening, no fires were reported as of this morning on the Wallowa-Whitman, said Jerry Garrett, who works at the Northeast Interagency Fire Dispatch Center in La Grande.

Reidy said the Wallowa-Whitman has fire crews ready.

Much of the forest’s firefighting arsenal, though including both of its 20-member Hotshot crews and four fire engines are in California, where more than 1,000 fires are burning.

Reidy said he would not have sent that many crews and engines last year, when one of the worst droughts on record raised the fire danger to late-summer levels by mid-June.

andquot;This,andquot; Reidy said, andquot;is a very different year.andquot;