LANSING - - With Michigan’s forest fire season here, public land management agencies are preparing for dangerous months ahead.

With rising temperatures and lower humidity, April and May are prime times for forest fires, said Carol Nilsson, Huron-Manistee National Forest’s fire information officer.

“The weather shouldn’t be a factor, and it’s actually a good thing that it is wet right now because all the moisture helps in preventing forest fires from occurring,” Nilsson said. “A couple of weeks ago when the weather was warmer, we already had a couple of fires, small ones, but that shows how the weather right now will have little effect on this season’s forest fires.”

The agency is advertising in movie theaters and on placemats in restaurants, informing people that it’s fire season and warning them to be especially careful, she said.

“We also have a national message going out that tells people what they should do to make sure a forest fire doesn’t destroy their house in case they are in a high-risk area,” said Nilsson, who is based in Cadillac.

“Last year during the fire that destroyed up to 6,000 acres at Hughes Lake, a couple of homes were saved because they had taken the proper precautions ahead of time.”

Hughes Lake is in Oscoda County.

Lisa Klaus, the public affairs agent at Ottawa National Forest in Ironwood, said the recent cooler, wetter weather hasn’t stopped her staff from preparing for the fire season.

“This weather is just forestalling what is to come,” Klaus said. “We’re putting releases in newspapers and keeping people informed. We don’t want people to become complacent.”

Both forests are federal land and are funded through Congress. Therefore, the U.S. Forest Service doesn’t worry about the state’s budget crisis getting in the way of preventing fires, Nilsson said.

“We have a strong firefighting force and strong equipment,” Nilsson said. “The local volunteer firefighters are a big help, too, because they are the ones that deal with the structural fires where we are only dealing with the forest fire.”

Funding to fight forest fires is an issue for some state parks, said Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Rebecca Humphries.

That’s not because the DNR staff is not properly trained but because fire crews are not as widely scattered throughout the state due to limited funds, she said.

“The state and these parks and forests are depending on our firefighters to get these fires as fast as possible,” Humphries said. “Every minute counts when you’re dealing with forest fires.

“This problem can become devastating for people because some of them may lose something like a cottage if we are unable to help them,” Humphries said.

The timber industry, a $9 billion industry in the state, suffers when trees are lost to fires.

“In some fires, depending on the severity, we could have a problem in rebuilding the whole area,” Humphries said. “In this case, the community is hurt because they are losing something that is helping that community out economically.”

She said Michigan has a mutual agreement with bordering states to provide help with putting out fires.

“We help them when they’re in need and they help us when we’re in need,” Humphries said.