22
Wednesday, October 11, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
FIRE DAMAGE: Road
will not open till
after next winter
Continued from page 1
underbrush has been occurring
for thousands of years. When
humans choose to live in the
wildland- urban interface, then
human intercedents like pre-
scribed burns become neces-
sary to save lives and property
when forest fires start.
The challenging job for
the U. S. Forest Service is to
maintain the balance between
nature doing what it does, and
human interaction with nature
as people live and recreate
close to and in the national for-
est. The very thing that makes
Sisters such a special place to
live is also capable of creating
public safety hazards and eco-
nomic hardship when forest
fires strike.
“The money set aside for
fire suppression in most years
is not adequate,” said Jean
Nelson-Dean, public affairs
officer for the Deschutes
National Forest. And so, “fire
borrowing” takes place with
money from other areas like
vegetation management and
wildlife going to cover sup-
pression costs. Nelson-Dean
said efforts are being made to
have forest fires treated like
other natural disasters such as
hurricanes and floods.
It’s easy to be an armchair
quarterback when fires start
in the wilderness. But being
on the front lines and making
the difficult decision requires
a wealth of knowledge and
experience not possessed by
the average citizen. When the
Milli Fire started on August
10 as the result of lightning
strikes, many people reiter-
ated a persistent myth that “the
Forest Service just lets fires
burn in the wilderness.” That
is actually not their policy.
From the time a fire is first
spotted, fire managers and
personnel are working on it.
Many different decisions are
required, taking into account
the fire’s location, firefighter
safety, weather conditions,
number of other active fires,
resource and manpower avail-
ability, public safety, and polit-
ical considerations.
There are hundreds of
pieces in play across the nation
at any given time when a fire
starts on the Sisters Ranger
District (see “How did the
Milli fire get so big?” The
Nugget, September 20).
Even before the Milli Fire
was completely contained,
work had already begun on
rehabbing the areas impacted
by firefighting efforts. During
cleanup the Forest Service also
takes into account cultural or
historical sites in the area,
PHOTO BY GARY MILLER
Hwy. 242 on the McKenzie Pass suffered significant fire damage to both the road and the scenic corridor during
the Milli Fire, resulting in extensive hazard-tree removal and repairs by the USFS and ODOT.
sensitive plants, and wildlife.
The old Santiam Wagon Road
runs parallel to Highway 242
in places and crosses it in sev-
eral locations. Attempts were
made to avoid impact on the
historic road when conducting
cleanup.
The Oregon Department
of Transportation asked the
Forest Service to assess poten-
tial hazards along Highway
242. They looked at the steep-
ness of the slopes next to the
highway and the condition
of the trees 100 feet out from
either side of the road. They
surveyed thousands of trees,
taking into consideration tree
height, amount of burn, pre-
dominant prevailing winds in
the area, amount of tree lean
over the highway, and weak-
ened roots.
According to Amy
Tinderholt, acting Sisters
District Ranger, the fire and
the necessary burnout opera-
tions that kept the fire from
reaching Black Butte Ranch
impacted seven miles of high-
way. Thirteen-and-a-half miles
of highway are being treated,
involving substantial work.
Traveling up to Windy
Point, the varying level of
the fire’s intensity is evident,
with some areas completely
unburned (12 percent of the
fire footprint), 38 percent
with low impact, 38 percent
moderately impacted, and the
highest intensity fire areas
devoid of any live vegetation
(12 percent).
The trees that have burned
lower branches with brown
needles and a healthy green
crown will usually survive.
It will actually be better pre-
pared for another fire because
the healthy crown is higher
and the brush has been burned
away. The same is true in pre-
scribed burns. Right after the
burn, trees may look dead, but
if the crown is green it will
usually survive and be more
resilient, with fewer fuels
around it.
For the past three weeks,
See FIRE DAMAGE on page 24
Our agents are ready to meet
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As life changes, so should your policy
— Kindling —
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