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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 2018)
20 Wednesday, April 11, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Burning season on the way in Sisters By Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief PHOTO BY GARY MILLER Some drippy spring weather has delayed things a bit, but fire managers will soon touch off a series of pre- scribed burns across Sisters Country. Fuels Technician Jeff Crawford told The Nugget that a total of about 1,100 acres will be treated with pre- scribed fire in a dual effort to improve forest health and to provide strategic breaks in the landscape to help fight wildfire. Fire is a natural part of the Sisters Country land- scape, as described by Dr. Paul Hessburg in a presen- tation titled “The Era of Megafires,” held in Sisters last month. “Forests are supposed to be patchy, with areas of dense conifer, and then areas of bare exposed landscape,” said Hessburg. The topography, eleva- tion, and weather all work together to shape the forest and help decide when and where fires occur. With an increase in the density of for- ests, fire is becoming more intense and hotter because the undergrowth is not being regularly burned out in low- intensity fire. Prescribed burning is designed to provide that healthy level of low-intensity fire. And those areas of more open landscape in the for- est can be critical to fighting wildfires when they break out. That is why most of the burning projects are planned near the “interface” areas on the west side of Sisters, where local communities push out into the forest. “These burns are not just happening in a vacuum,” Crawford said. “They’re stra- tegically placed.” Crawford noted that areas treated by prescribed burns in recent years came into play last year during the Milli Fire, which burned over 24,000 acres and inundated Sisters with smoke for weeks in August and September. “They turned out to be the first anchor points for Milli,” he said. The public often looks askance at setting the forest alight on purpose. People don’t like the smoke, espe- cially when it comes on the first pristine days of the spring season, and they don’t like seeing the black ground and brown pine needles left behind. Several Facebook posts after the Sisters Ranger District announced burning plans complained of smoke and “making the forest ugly.” Crawford acknowledged those concerns, though he says that Sisters is much more receptive to the value of burning than other communi- ties in which he’s worked. “I think folks understand, to a large extent,” he said. The impact on the land- scape is temporary, he noted, though “temporary” for people and for landscape is a relative concept. What is healthy for the fire-adapted ponderosa forests of Sisters looks destructive and ugly to those of us who hike through them. “Whenever we burn, there will be that year, two years when those effects will be visible on the ground,” he said. Crawford noted that sce- nic corridors and values are taken into account in plan- ning which areas are treated with fire. “Obviously when we burn, we’re not looking to create an eyesore,” he said. Of course, blazes like the Milli Fire do much greater and more long-term damage to larger areas of landscape than prescribed burning does. A similar trade-off is in play regarding smoke. Prescribed burning does pro- duce smoke, though fire man- agers strive to burn in condi- tions where the smoke will dissipate and work to douse smoke-producing stumps and mop up the edges of fires. In Sisters, an inversion some- times pushes prescribed fire smoke into town along the Trout Creek and Indian Ford Creek drainages overnight. But the smoke from New to the Hair Cache family Wendy Sell etin 20 years of experience! Cut and color specialist. 152 E. Main Ave. • 541-549-8771 Jeff • Theresa • Ann • Jamie • Shiela • Terri • Shanntyl • Wendy PHOTO BY BRETT MILLER, BARRAGE STUDIOS Window for burning operations in Sisters Country is narrow. prescribed fire does not com- pare to the volume of dense smoke produced by a wild- fire. The Milli Fire produced such heavy smoke for such a long period of time last sum- mer that it had a negative effect on people’s health and struck a devastating blow to the local economy. Dr. Hessburg insists that prescribed burning — along with strategic logging — is critical to restoring western forests to a healthy state. He puts the equation starkly: “How do you want your smoke?” Either fire manag- ers treat the forests exten- sively and aggressively with fire, or we will continue to see the devastating impact of massive wildfires during longer and longer fire sea- sons, influenced by a chang- ing climate. That longer fire season is affecting burning projects, Crawford acknowledged. “We obviously don’t want to be burning during fire-season-like conditions,” Crawford said. “As a practi- tioner, the window (for pre- scribed burning) is getting harder to hit.” Citizens can keep up with prescribed fire plans through a live map available at http:// www.fs.fed.us/r6/webmaps/ deschutes/cofms-rxfire/. Those who have particular sensitivities can contact the Sisters Ranger District to be placed on a list to be alerted to burning plans in advance. Our agents are ready to meet your insurance needs As life changes, so should your policy Call or come in today for a free Farmers Friendly Review 541-588-6245 • 257 S. Pine St., #101 www.farmersagent.com/jrybka AUTO • HOME • LIFE • BUSINESS Shop Local The Nugget is brought to you weekly because of our advertisers’ support. So we ask you to support the local businesses which help make your community, hometown newspaper possible.
