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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2019)
Wednesday, April 17, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 25 Forest Service plans a busy year FIRE SEASON: Drought conditions will persist in region Continued from page 1 the Northwest Interagency Coordinating Center (NWCC) seasonal fire poten- tial model with the two-dozen or so local citizens who turned out for the open house. The good news is that the heavy late snowfall that hammered Sisters at the end of February has left the snowpack in the mountains at 110 percent of normal. Unfortunately, however, that9s not enough to break ongoing drought. <With that moisture, they9re still predicting drought for us,= Osbourne said. Models are predicting a <warmer than typical May- June-July,= which could make for an active fire season. The next fire potential outlook will be released in May and can be accessed at https:// gacc.nifc.gov/nwcc/predict/ outlook.aspx. Fire was on the minds of the participants in a Q&A ses- sion. The first question asked for a comparison between Sisters9 situation and that of Paradise, California, which was destroyed by wildfire last summer. Osbourne and Sisters Ranger District timber sale coordinator Steve Orange offered some assurances. <We9ve done a lot of work around here in the last 20 years,= Osborne noted. That work includes pre- scribed burning and thin- ning projects to make forests healthier and less susceptible to catastrophic wildfire, and to make homes in the urban- wildland interface more defensible. <We9ve done a lot of log- ging right in people9s back- yards,= Orange noted, citing projects near Black Butte Ranch and Crossroads as examples. By Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS Forest Service fish biologist Mike Riehle confers with a Sisters citizen at a Forest Service open house on Thursday, April 11. The SAFR (Sisters Area Fuels Reduction) project was designed to decrease haz- ardous fuels accumulations within the wildland-urban interface adjacent to the city of Sisters and surrounding communities to reduce the risk of high-intensity wildfire. Orange noted that the recent Melvin Butte project reduced fuels south of Sisters, where the threat of fire could be significant. <You9ll see major changes going up the 16 Road to the snowpark,= he said. In comparison to Paradise, <we9re well ahead of where they were,= Osbourne said. <That said, we9re not out of the woods, obviously.= In an ongoing effort to, as Osbourne puts it, <fight fire out in the woods and not on people9s doorstep,= the Sisters Ranger District will engage in prescribed burns of about 650 acres total this spring. While fire is the greatest concern for an area that has seen 50 percent of the Sisters Ranger District territory burn since 2002, there are other issues of pressing concern. One citizen asked about ille- gal dumping and <off-site= camping in the forest. SRD Law Enforcement Officer Fred Perl acknowl- edged that dumping is a sig- nificant issue. <It goes on relentlessly,= he said. Perl relies on citizen tips when they see violations, and he noted, <I try to pros- ecute every case that comes across& my desk.= However, Sisters District Ranger Ian Reid acknowl- edged that keeping up with dumping could be a full-time gig. <If we devoted all of our resources to trash, we wouldn9t get a lot of other things done,= he said. Dispersed camping in the forest, often by homeless peo- ple, is also an issue. There is a 14-day limit on how long a person can stay in a spot, and when they move they9re sup- posed to move five miles. It9s up to Perl to enforce that. Perl acknowledged that dealing with homelessness in Sisters <is a community issue for all of us,= and noted that he works consistently with other community agencies and citizens to address the issues associated with it. <It9s a very difficult issue to deal with, but we are deal- ing with it,= he said. The Sisters Ranger District will be a beehive of activity in 2019. <We spent a lot of last year recovering from the Milli Fire,= Ranger Ian Reid told some two-dozen Sisters folks at an open house on Thursday evening at the Sisters Fire District Community Room. That included reopening trails, including the iconic trail to the summit of Black Crater, which was severely impacted by that 2017 blaze. The District also did significant work to restore natural hydrology in Glaze Meadow; to mitigate ribbon grass along the Metolius River; and engaged in an active prescribed burning program. 2019 is shaping up to offer a wide scope of proj- ects. In addition to oversee- ing the removal of 2,100 trees along the Highway 20 corridor (see related story, page 1), the Sisters Ranger District will conduct a major project to fell dangerous and/or diseased trees and replant and transplant in the Suttle Lake area. The proj- ect is designed to address safety concerns and also to promote the health of the forest. They will also launch a major habitat restoration and vegetation management project on Green Ridge. <We9re still developing what that project will look like,= Reid said. One of the last fish pas- sage barriers on Whychus Creek will be removed and new trail connectors will be added to the popular Peterson Ridge trail, and the trailhead will be moved. Reid said the District will staff its office on Saturdays for two months at the height of summer. A permanent toilet will be installed at the Whychus Overlook Trailhead and a new bridge will be emplaced over Indian Ford Creek. And, if all goes to plan, the District will come out with a new District map 4 waterproof and in color 4 the first update in 19 years. A final decision on fees for The Cascade Wilderness Strategies Project 4 intended to protect the wil- derness from overuse by controlling public access. Reid clarified that there will be a single fee associ- ated with a new permitting system. <There would not be an additional stewardship fee on top of the fee,= he said. 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