While the focus of the last week has been putting out the Pole Creek and Bald Mountain fires, many officials are looking to preventing such massive burns in the first place. As of Friday, the two fires have caused about 6,000 people to be evacuated from their homes, and have burned well over 100,000 acres primarily in Utah County. U.S. Rep. John Curtis, R-Provo, facilitated a meeting at his Provo office Friday with local officials that he said was the first “deep dive” into what comes after the fires. As containment of the fires starts coming into view, Curtis says it’s time to talk about worries such as debris flows and mudslides that can follow near massive burn scars. Should a thunderstorm move in and wreak havoc, it’s important to make sure entities are working together as quickly as possible to prevent as much of that as possible, Curtis said. A group of county officials representing counties all over Utah said they want to look not just at ways to react to large fires, but how to prevent them in the future. Utah County is far from the only county that has been affected by large-scale fires, said Utah County Commissioner Bill Lee after the meeting Friday. Commissioners from dozens of counties signed a letter addressed to Utah’s Gov. Gary Herbert and Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, requesting coordination with state and federal partners regarding forest management practices. “100 years of fire suppression and mismanagement of our Forests have resulted in a tinder box full of beetle kill trees, undergrowth and deadfall — creating an overwhelming fuel load that is impossible to manage once the fire takes off,” the letter says. “Specifically, we request coordination with the State and Federal partners to increase timber harvest, fuel reduction and range management practices that will decrease catastrophic wildfires.” Lee says management policies need to go a different direction that make sense locally. “We would like to see a task force ... where we get together and say, ‘Here’s the concerns that we’re seeing, that we’re having, that’s affecting all of us down here,’” he said. Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson said it’s important that local officials be involved in management decisions, because they know what’s going on in their own backyards. “We know where the problem areas are,” Pearson said. “We know specifically where our watershed areas are.” Garfield County Commissioner Jerry Taylor also experienced a large wildfire close to home in 2017 when the Brian Head Fire burned more than 70,000 acres in Iron and Garfield counties, causing evacuations of more than 1,000 people and destroying multiple homes. “If we had been in there 20 years ago to manage that, to cut the timber and take care of it, we wouldn’t have had this catastrophic fire at this time,” Taylor said. Uinta County Commissioner Duane Shepherd said he didn’t want people to think that commissioners are “against” the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management, but said changes in the national policy are needed. Curtis said he spoke on the phone Friday morning with Vicki Christiansen, the interim chief for the U.S. Forest Service. Curtis said Christiansen committed to a transparent review of the fires, and said the Forest Service would respond with urgency to the debris flows and floods expected to follow in wake of the fire. Following the review, Curtis said Christiansen told him the Forest Service will be open to changes. “I think it’s important that the person at the top is having the same dialogue that the county commissioners are hoping to have,” Curtis said. Curtis said he views himself as a facilitator in this process moving forward, and said counties, the federal government and the state government should be in harmony and moving the same direction on the issue. “I think I have the ability to call Washington’s attention out here and make sure they’re listening,” Curtis said. “... Of course, Congress can play a role in any changes that need to be made as well, when we’re ready.”