With the camping, hiking and general outdoors season in full swing, another traditional summertime season has begun - Forest fire season.

Anyone heading into the wilds needs to check on local fire conditions before venturing out to their favorite back country recreational area. At the very minimum you can save yourself the inconvenience of being in a smoke-filled area. More importantly, you can prevent yourself from being in an area where emergency services are operating to put out a fire, prevent yourself from getting into the path of a fast moving fire, and save yourself the hassle of finding your favorite spot closed due to emergency efforts.

The National Interagency Fire Center operating out of Boise, Idaho updates their web site daily and covers all areas across the US. The handiest way to use the site is to surf to http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm. Or from the main page, select "Fire Information" from the side menu, and from the menu that pops up, select" National Fire News".

The report that appears first lists daily notes about weather conditions that might impact certain states, a summary of the current fire situation and some daily stats. Scroll down and there is a list of the current fires by state, with detailed descriptions about location, intensity, size of fire and amount contained.

Exceedingly useful for anyone planning any outdoor trip, in fact the whole site is full of useful information for forest users.