LEADBETTER POINT — Grassy Island, an uninhabited island just
east of the northern tip of Leadbetter Point on the Long Beach
Peninsula, is the scene of a smoky fire Friday night. According
to a fire management plan drafted by the island's owner, the
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, the refuge's Leadbetter Unit
has several hundred acres of young to mature lodgepole pine
(shore pine) on the peninsula tip that continues to spread north
and westward, and a small area of lodgepole pine on Grassy
Island. The oldest lodgepole pine trees are approximately 80
years old, although most of the lodgepole pine on the refuge is
much younger than 80 years. Natural-caused fires are said to be
infrequent in the maritime climate of lodgepole pine, but there
was a significant fire on the island in July 2006 that scorched
about 50 acres. The refuge notes that human-caused fires can be
much more frequent in lodgepole pine due to public use occurring
in and near this forest type. The 2006 fire was believed at the
time to have been