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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2020)
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM Q&A Continued from Page 1A windstorm. The Forest Service did sound the alarm by shutting down the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, and there were evacuation warnings for Elkhorn and Britenbush that Monday – before the fires started. But when you look back, do you think there was good enough communication between mete- orologists, the Forest Service, fire crews and Marion County to let folks know about the potential danger? Dave: I think there was good commu- nication that this weather event was coming and that did result in some sound decision making to get people out of harm’s way. We worked closely with search and rescue to evacuate the entire Mount Jefferson Wilderness on a very busy Labor Day Weekend. But even so, I’m not sure we knew at the time the magnitude of this weather event in terms of fire behavior, and that’s some- thing that keeps me up at night. How do you plan for something of this size and scope and speed and duration? It was really was beyond what we expected or what we’ve experienced. Q: I think most people agree it was rare. But what we hear from people in Mill City or Gates, is look, we had the two active fires on the landscape (Bea- chie Creek and Lionshead), we had an unprecedented fire warning, maybe we should have gone to a level 1 evacuation warning right away in the Santiam Can- yon, because that would have gotten people’s attention. Do you think there’s more that could have been done to com- municate to Marion County that this was a possibility? Dave: We were in close communica- tion with the Marion County Sheriff ’s Office the whole time. I have to say, the Sheriff ’s Office did a remarkable job. I know for certain that the work they did saved lives. I was there that night in Gates as we had multiple ignitions (around the original Beachie Creek Fire incident command post), I was there as we moved down to Stayton and tried to reassemble and reengage. If we were just looking at the Lionshead Fire com- ing over the crest or the (original) Bea- chie Creek Fire coming out of the forest, there was really good communication and planning. What was hard to plan for was the multiple additional ignitions in the Santiam Canyon corridor. Rick: If the power lines hadn’t gone down, this would be a different story. We’d be talking about a much different level of impact. Those original fires did move in a way we’ve never seen in this area, but when you add multiple new ig- nitions, right next to homes, during ex- treme weather, that’s a terrible mix. Q: Alright, I want to talk a little bit more about the Beachie Creek Fire and how it was fought. So we’ve had a num- ber of these fires now — the Whitewater, Chetco Bar and now Beachie Creek. They’re these small fires that start in re- mote wilderness areas and kind of smolder, sometimes for days or even weeks. There is a perception they could be fought more aggressively, and people ask: ‘Why couldn’t they blast it with so much water that it goes out, or why can’t firefighters get in to do do X, Y and Z.’ Given this has happened a few times now, does there need to be a new para- digm for these wilderness wildfires es- pecially since conditions seem to be leaning toward making a blowup more possible? Dave: It’s a fair question. We knew from the beginning that Beachie Creek was going to be a hard fire because of where it was located: no easy access and even if we did access it, on a landscape that it makes firefighting really hazard- ous with steep slopes and true old- growth forest. That’s why we took it se- riously from the beginning. Our intent was always full suppression of this fire (to put it out). And I think our record on our response bears that out. We did due diligence to try a ground attack on the fire. We tried multiple ways of getting people in, including smokejumpers and a crew to hike in there, which they did, and gained access only to confirm it was too hazardous to bring folks in there on foot. Even if we got them in there, get- ting them out was going to be a problem. So we did drop a ton of water on that original Beachie Creek Fire. We had heli- copters on that nonstop that first week. The thing is that water alone is rarely going to put these things out in that type of country. But it’s a good question and it’s one that I carry with me, too. Rick: Dave used our very best elite firefighting resources early on to try to put this fire out. And because of that fuel complex, it had extremely high re- sistance to control. You have deep duff, significant litter and a ladder fuel. That’s why it doesn’t matter how much water you put on it, it can hold heat. You have to have people on the ground working right there, in an area that elite firefight- ers turned down twice. This was a stronger and different response than Chetco Bar. I wouldn’t compare those two, even if it looks like that on the sur- face. Q: It’s just these wilderness areas seem tough. We want this remote expe- rience. I love it. A lot of people love it. That’s what makes it worth visiting be- cause it’s far from roads. That’s what makes them special. But it feels like in some of these cases that there’s almost nothing you can do about fires that pop up there. Dave: I’ve been asked about how wil- derness inhibited our ability to respond to the original Beachie Creek Fire. The fact is that it being in a wilderness had no bearing on our response. I authorized retardant use. We didn’t have any re- strictions on how we were responding to that other than the inherent safety risks on that landscape. That was the inhib- iting factor. Part of our job is to deliber- ately manage risks. Our objective here was full suppression and we used every tool that was the safest to use at that time. Rick: Keep in mind we suppressed fires successfully for a century. That changes the dynamic. I don’t know what it would look like if we hadn’t. That fire would have probably bumped into other fire scars that previously burned in that area. But we don’t have that. We have very continuous surface and areal fuels. We also have fire seasons lasting longer and that are more intense. And then we have people that love these environ- ments and are out in them. So it’s a real- ly difficult mix. Q: That point, Rick, gets me to this concern about the future and this seem- ingly impossible Catch-22. I mean look, after this fire season, there’s going to be zero interest from the public in letting any wildland fire burn. The second peo- ple hear about it they’ll want it out. Dave: Yup. Q: But on the other hand, the Forest Service has talked for decades about needing more fire on the landscape, even though it seems to rarely happen. How do you manage those two contra- dictory things? Dave: I think we have to really lean into the science and really start under- standing how time of season affects fires. I know going into the season that July, August and September are critical months where at some point, we’re go- ing to get critical fire windows that have the possibility to bring dynamic fire weather. I really don’t want any fire on landscape during that period. I don’t care what ignition is, whether it’s light- ing or campfire. There’s a lot of risks in that time. Fire in the middle of October might look a lot different, and might have a different effect on landscape. Maybe we need to find a way to talk about that differently. Public education around this topic is critical. Rick: At times like this, there’s not a lot that can be done. But look, what slowed the progress of the Lionshead Fire or stopped it? It was another big fire (that had consumed all of the fuel). People ask: What can we do about this? It goes back to having ignition re- sistance around the things we care about, like homes. And the other thing is big recent fires or big prescribed fires or a matrix of prescribed fires. That’s the only thing from modeling or our obser- vations that can stop these things. That’s it until Mother Nature steps in (with heavy rain). I think in coming years we’ll see some benefit from these fires because they’ll impede or slow the spread from another fire in this area. There will be a benefit, it’s just obvious- ly unfortunate that it had to be so big and hurtful in the process. Q: Once the shock of this started to wear off, and we took stock of the dam- age to homes and communities, people have started to wonder about the forest- ed places they love. What do you do about places like Opal Creek? It’s a mess. I’ve seen pictures of the bridge at Henline Creek that’s collapsed. The whole area looks bad. As far as closures go, from Eagle Creek, that area was closed for three years. People are going to want to get back in there. What does that look like? How do you balance safe- ty with letting people onto public land? Dave: This is a question we struggle with even for moderately sized fires. How to provide for safety while allowing public access. We have that difficulty on a 10,000-acre fire and we currently have 200,000 acres of just the Willamette National Forest (burned). That makes for a harder balance. I don’t think you have either safety or access, it’s how do we provide some level of both. Are we going to have unfettered access to the whole area that burned by this coming spring? No, we’re not. We are going to do some work, make assessments and open up some areas that people can get into. I think we can do that, and I think that’s important. The public’s ability to enter burned areas is important for healing. These places were special to a lot of people. It’s also important for learning. When we see how landscapes and ecosystems respond to this level of disturbance, there’s a lot of value. We’re taking the first steps and have identified a travel system we’re going to do dan- ger-tree work around. It’s the first in- road for public access, creating a safer M E K A LX2610SUHSD † www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC Garry Falor CFP ® FINANCIAL ADVISOR South | 503-362-5439 FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-588-5426 Caitlin Davis CFP ® Chip Hutchings FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-585-1464 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Lancaster | 503-585-4689 Jeff Davis Tim Sparks FINANCIAL ADVISOR Mission | 503-363-0445 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Commercial | 503-370-6159 | 3A systems of routes. The closures will be in place a long time but they’re for good reason. Intent to make areas safe to re- enter, to be part of recovery. Q: To push back a little on this idea that an area needs to be safe for the pub- lic to be allowed back into them. A wild landscape is supposed to carry some in- herent danger. If it takes three years be- fore people are allowed back in the Opal Creek area, people are going to start breaking that closure. They just are. How do you balance that? Dave: Our responsibility is to provide a certain level of safety, particularly around improvements and travel sys- tems we invite the public to use. If we have an open road, there’s an assump- tion that road will be relatively free of risks. Same with a pit toilet. Have to as- sess around it because we’re inviting people to stop and use. Talking about the broader forest area, or unimproved wilderness, that’s certainly a question. I do look forward to talking about that with others to understand where the balancing point is. Rick: People do have to be patient. Even as a former firefighter, I’ve been in a burned area and been concerned about my safety. I was camping in one area and was looking really closely at the trees in case of strong winds. There are hazards people may not understand. Q: What can we take from this into the future? Dave: It’s clear that we need to dou- ble down on that national cohesive strategy - that it’s all of us in this togeth- er. That means everything from having resilient landscapes to wildfire re- sponse to fire-adapted communities to utility providers to community leaders. We all have a part to play and we have to do this together. As places start to rebuild, I’ve been thinking about what defensible space looks like. Because defensible space equals time and time equals a better chance of firefighters being able to de- fend a piece of property. What hap- pened out there on Labor Day weekend was that we didn’t have a lot of space or time to be effective with the wind event and fire behavior like that. Zach Urness has been an outdoors re- porter, photographer and videographer in Oregon for 12 years. 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