20
Wednesday, October 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
FIRE REHAB: Extensive
work slated to
rehab forest
Continued from page 1
some experienced low or
moderate-intensity fire; and
some portions of the fire area
didn’t burn at all.
The BAER Team on the
Milli Fire was comprised of
Forest Service employees
with a range of resource spe-
cialties who work together
to assess time-critical reha-
bilitation or recovery activi-
ties to be completed within
a fire area. According to
the Forest Service, overall
objectives for BAER Teams
include:
• Determine whether
i m minent pos t-wildfire
threats to human life and
safety, property, and critical
natural or cultural resources
on National Forest System
lands exist and take imme-
diate actions, as appropriate,
to manage the unacceptable
risks.
• If emergency condi-
tions are identified, mitigate
significant threats to health,
safety, human life, property
and values-at-risk.
• Prescribe emergency
response actions to stabi-
lize and prevent unaccept-
able degradation to natural
and cultural resources, to
minimize threats to life or
property resulting from the
effects of a fire, or to repair/
replace/construct physical
improvements necessary to
prevent degradation of land
or resources.
• Implement emergency
response actions to help sta-
bilize soil; control water, sed-
iment and debris movement
DRONES: Tech offers
tool for vineyard
management
Continued from page 13
Garms were surveying a
field where the grapevines
had been infected with red
blotch disease, a viral infec-
tion that hampers fruit pro-
duction. Wing said the flight
was the fourth in a series of
five monthly flyovers at the
field where he and Garms
were using an infrared cam-
era to look for the disease.
Wing said that they are
testing whether the infra-
red camera can detect the
disease earlier, because the
cameras can see shades of
red on the grapevine leaves
that the human eye cannot
see.
Wing said he and his team
will need to confirm the pres-
ence of the red blotch virus
with genetic testing and have
and potentially reduce threats
to the BAER values identi-
fied above when an analysis
shows that planned actions
are likely to reduce risks sub-
stantially within the first year
following containment of the
fire.
• Monitor the implemen-
tation and effectiveness of
emergency treatments that
were applied on National
Forest System lands.
The BAER Team for the
Milli Fire used field surveys
and science-based models
to evaluate and assess the
burned area. The BAER
Team’s focus was on mini-
mizing potential post-fire
effects to life, property,
and critical natural or cul-
tural resources. The team
completed its final report
for the Deschutes National
Forest on September 21,
and made the following
recommendations:
• Invasive weed detection
and treatment along several
Forest Service roads and
Highway 242 that were of
high to moderate burn sever-
ity. It is expected that the
detection will occur across
205 acres and will require
20 acres of treatment within
those 205 acres.
• Storm-proofing of roads
in areas with high and mod-
erate burn severity. This will
include cleaning culverts and
installing additional water
bars to handle short-term
sediment and debris flows.
This activity will occur on
3.4 miles of road.
• Installing drainage fea-
tures on roads downslope or
within the high and moder-
ate burn severity areas. This
work will occur on 2.2 miles
of road.
• Trailhead hazard tree
months of data analysis to
do, but early signs are that
the method is promising.
“Hopefully, this would
allow (vineyard owners) to
know there is a problem ear-
lier,” he said. “Potentially,
this could be a really valu-
able tool.”
Wing added that there
aren’t any treatments for
red blotch disease except
containment, so an early
detection method could
help vineyard owners keep
healthy plants from getting
infected.
Garms, a doctoral stu-
dent, said he thinks someday
there likely will be compa-
nies that travel around hir-
ing out drone surveying
services for vineyard own-
ers. He said he’s thought
of doing that kind of work
himself when he finishes his
studies.
“In the future, this could
be as common as having your
soil tested,” Garms said.
mitigation will continue to
mitigate hazard trees adja-
cent to trailheads as addi-
tional tree mortality is
expected from the fire in the
next few months. Areas of
particular concern are Scott
Pass and Lava Camp Lake
trailheads.
• Trail stabilization that
includes installing drain-
age, waterbars and removing
snags as necessary. Primary
areas of concern are the
Pacific Crest, North Matthieu
Lake, Millican Crater, Scott
Pass, Green Lakes, Trout
Creek Tie and Black Crater
trails.
• Install trail and road haz-
ard signs to inform the public
about the dangers associated
with recreating within the
burn area.
• Temporarily closing
access roads with boul-
ders accessing four camp-
sites within Lava Camp
Lake Campground (seven
sites to remain open) and
the Black Crater trailhead
access. These areas will
be reevaluated and may be
reopened when hazards are
no longer a threat to public
safety.
The total request for funds
for Milli Fire rehabilitation
and recovery work based on
the BAER Team’s recom-
mendation was $131,212.
In addition to the work
PHOTO BY CEILI CORNELIUS
Some areas of the Milli Fire burned at high intensity.
that will be completed under
the BAER Team assessment,
suppression crews and con-
tractors are continuing repair
of suppression lines associ-
ated with the Milli Fire to
mitigate adverse effects to
resources resulting from fire
suppression activities. This
includes:
• Rehabilitation and
recovery of constructed sup-
pression lines including
dozer lines (11.4 miles), hand
lines (1.3 miles), safety zones
and helispots.
• Repair to roads and trails
used as suppression lines.
Roads (50.9 miles) and trails
(0.75 miles) may need to be
graded/reconstructed or have
drainage repaired. Danger
trees are being mitigated this
fall along approximately 18.1
miles of open roads including
6.9 miles of Highway 242.
In areas where felled dan-
ger trees are not necessary
to meet resource goals and
would create an unsafe accu-
mulation of fuels or would be
a roadside hazard, trees have
been decked and will be sold
commercially or as personal
use firewood.
Over the next year the
Sisters Ranger District will
assess the need to complete
additional resource protec-
tion or repair roads, trails,
or other infrastructure in
the Milli Fire area that can-
not be addressed through
BAER or suppression repair
authorities. The District is
also beginning to assess the
need to conduct salvage log-
ging projects along roads
or areas affected by the
fire.