The summer's three main wildfires cost $622,000 to put out, but there's still no word on whether the people who started them will get a bill in the mail.

The U.S. Forest Service has a policy to bill fire costs to individuals who start fires on Forest Service property.

All three summer wildfires had human origins, including the 3,900-acre wildfire that burned into the state's rare ponderosa pine forest southwest of Amidon.

The ponderosa fire - called the Deep Creek Fire for the drainage it followed - was started from a piece of working farm machinery a few miles south of the pines.

The Forest Service still plans to do a prescribed burn in part of the 6,000-acre ponderosa forest to help prevent future wildfires from doing such catastrophic damage.

The Deep Creek Fire cost by far the most at $345,000. The largest share of that cost was borne by the Forest Service, which put $197,000 into firefighting at Deep Creek, including $31,000 to bring in a retardant drop by tanker plane and a helicopter water bucket.

Jim Wickel, a planning officer for the Forest Service, said it will be several months before regional agency officials in Missoula, Mont., decide about billing individuals for fire costs.

The two other fires - the Whitetail and the Magpie northwest of Fairfield - were caused by humans; one at an oil well site, the other from a campfire.

The Whitetail covered 500 acres and cost $142,000 to suppress. The Magpie covered 1,900 acres and cost $135,000 to suppress.

Local and state crews and the Forest Service fought all three wildfires.

The wildfire that burned through the ponderosa forest and damaged hundreds of acres of pines showed how valuable prescribed burning will be, said Jeffrey Adams, environmental coordinator for the Forest Service.

He said that all of the environmental paperwork should be done soon so that a prescribed burn can be done on about 600 acres of the pines in October, if weather permits.

Dry conditions put a prescribed fire in the ponderosas on the back burner the past two seasons.

Deliberately burning through the pines reduces the small trees that act like fire ladders to the tall trees, he said.

The prescribed burn would take place south and east of the Deep Creek wildfire.

"The wildfire was a good indication that we need to do some management of the pines," Adams said. "It's a unique area. We'd like to have it around for people to go into."

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)