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WALLOWA COUNTY SENIOR
Meal sites are open for in-dining!
Meal site information: Wallowa 886-8971, Enterprise
426-3840, Home delivered meals 426-3840.
Mon. May 9: Asian chicken rice bowl, roasted veggies, fruit
& cookie (sponsored in memory of Mothers
Past & Present)
Wed. May 11: Pork roast, mashed red potatoes & gravy,
steamed vegetables, green salad, fruit &
dessert (sponsored by St. Patrick’s
Episcopal Church)
Fri. May 13: Hamburger with cheese, lettuce, tomato &
onion, potato salad, baked beans & fruit
(sponsored by City of Wallowa)
(Milk, fruit & vegetables served with all meals)
Mon. May 9: Breakfast: Breakfast bars
Lunch: Hamburger soup & rolls
Tue. May 10: Breakfast: Waffles
Lunch: Tacos & refried beans
A15
Forest’s fi ery plans might fi zzle out
A much diff erent spring
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
Trevor Lewis was almost
ready to start spreading
fl ames when the rain arrived.
The rain stopped.
But it was supplanted by
snow.
Regardless of whether
the precipitation has been
liquid or frozen, there’s sim-
ply been too much moisture
during April for Lewis and
other U.S. Forest Service
offi cials to begin their ambi-
tious plans for prescribed
burning on parts of the Wal-
lowa-Whitman
National
Forest.
“Right now it’s just too
wet,” Lewis said on Tuesday
morning, April 26.
He’s an assistant fi re
management offi cer for the
Wallowa-Whitman’s Burnt
Powder Fire Zone, in the
fuels division.
Given ideal conditions,
forest managers had hoped
to light controlled fi res
on several thousand acres
around the south end of
the forest, including in the
Sumpter and Whitney val-
ley areas and in the south-
ern Wallowas around Balm
Creek Reservoir, Lily White
and Sparta Butte.
Conditions have not been
ideal.
Far closer to the opposite,
in fact.
But it didn’t start that
way.
Lewis said that in early
April, with the snow line
receding and generally dry
weather persisting, a trend
that lasted much of the win-
ter, conditions in some
places were almost suitable
for prescribed burning.
If the rain had held off for
another three or four days,
Lewis said burning likely
would have started in a few
places.
But then one storm damp-
ened the rapidly drying
woods.
And the parade of Pacifi c
tempests has continued, with
relatively brief intermis-
sions, ever since.
Much too brief to get for-
ests “back in prescription,”
as Lewis puts it.
What he means is a piece
of ground that’s not so dry
that fl ames will spread too
fast or burn too hot, but also
not so soggy as to quickly
squelch the fl ames.
The period when a sec-
tion of forest meets the nec-
essary criteria typically hap-
pens only during spring or
fall.
In some seasons it doesn’t
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald, File
A La Grande Hot Shot fi refi ghter uses a drip torch to ignite dry
grass during a prescribed fi re near Phillips Reservoir on April
15, 2021. Conditions have been too wet so far this spring for
prescribed burning.
happen at all.
And Lewis is starting to
think spring 2022 might be
one of those.
Steven Cooke, Lewis’
counterpart on the Wal-
lowa-Whitman’s
Grande
Ronde Fire Zone, which
generally coincides with the
La Grande Ranger District,
agrees.
“It’s going to be a really
short window (for prescribed
burning) if we even get one,”
Cooke said on Tuesday,
April 26.
As of that day, the Blue
Mountain Interagency Dis-
patch Center in La Grande,
which covers the Wal-
lowa-Whitman and parts of
the Umatilla National For-
est, reported no prescribed
burning projects completed
this year.
“Right now it’s not look-
ing good for any prescribed
burning this spring,” Lewis
said. “We’ll see what the rest
of the spring brings.”
If it continues to bring
frequent rain and snow for
much longer, he said the
Wallowa-Whitman’s burn-
ing “window” might well
close at least until the
autumn rains (which tend
not to be as reliable as those
of spring).
As May progresses, fi re
managers have another cri-
terion to add to their list —
conifer trees sprouting fresh
green buds.
Once those buds begin to
proliferate, prescribed burn-
ing is more risky because the
fl ames and heat can scorch
the new growth and stunt the
tree, Lewis said.
By late May, prescribed
burning typically isn’t fea-
sible even if the ground has
the proper moisture con-
tent. The growth of lush new
grass — which is likely after
a prolonged period of rain
— also can stymie fi re man-
agers, since green vegeta-
tion doesn’t burn as readily
as the desiccated mat of pine
needles and other debris that
predominates earlier in the
spring.
As of now, Lewis said, it
would likely take 10 to 14
days of dry weather to get
forests to a condition where
prescribed burning could be
eff ective.
But for much of April
there hasn’t been more than
a few consecutive dry days.
That’s not nearly long
enough to dry the ground,
Lewis said — especially
ground that was covered
with half a foot of soggy
spring snow.
That was the situation
with many of the places
where prescribed fi res were
planned this spring, he said.
Snow, as you might
expect, poses a more formi-
dable impediment to burning
than rain does.
Rain mainly soaks into
the ground, and a couple of
sunny, warm days can pretty
much erase the eff ects of a
rainstorm, Lewis said.
But once the snow melts,
the ground remains about as
wet as it would be after a rain
shower, so the drying cycle
is proportionately longer.
“It just really set us back,”
Lewis said of the multi-
ple snowstorms in the Blue
Mountains during April.
He said some units near
Sparta, and a couple on the
east side of Black Mountain,
south of Phillips Reservoir,
are the most likely candi-
dates for potential prescribed
burning this spring.
Cooke said a couple units
north of Interstate 84 at Hil-
gard possibly could dry out
early enough to be burned
this spring, but the poten-
tial eff ects of smoke, given
the proximity to La Grande,
could be a challenge.
If all the potential burn-
ing is postponed this spring,
it wouldn’t be the fi rst time,
Lewis said.
But this year demon-
strates how dramatically dif-
ferent successive years can
be.
Last spring was much
more conducive to pre-
scribed fi re.
In mid April 2021, crews
from the Wallowa-Whit-
man burned several hundred
acres of ponderosa pine for-
est near Phillips Reservoir,
about 17 miles southwest of
Baker City.
Although a few patches
of snow still survived in
sheltered spots, Lewis said
the lack of spring rain,
and the ongoing eff ects
of drought, left the forest
fl oor dry enough to sustain
fl ames.
Those blazes killed a
small percentage of pines,
and blackened the bark and
turned the green needles red
on some others.
But Wallowa-Whitman
offi cials, including Lewis,
who toured the burned areas
a few months later were sat-
isfi ed with the results.
Forest managers pre-
scribe controlled fi res for
multiple reasons and in mul-
tiple situations.
But the common goal
is to reduce the amount of
combustible stuff on the
ground — dead dry grass,
mats of pine needles and
fallen twigs and limbs, as
well as the manmade debris
left after logging or thin-
ning of trees too small to be
sawed into boards.
Trimming the volume of
this material — what fi re
offi cials simply call “fuel”
— can curb the risk of
wildfi res during the sum-
mer, when fl ames tend to be
much more diffi cult to con-
trol due to hot, dry weather.
Forest Service offi cials
also say that prescribed fi res
can spur the growth of native
grasses and shrubs that are
valuable food sources for
wildlife and cattle.
In general, prescribed
fi res are intended to mimic
fi res that used to burn rel-
atively frequently in areas
where ponderosa pine was
the dominant species —
every decade or so, accord-
ing to scientists who have
studied fi re scars on old
growth trees.
Some of those fi res were
ignited by lightning.
Native Americans also
used prescribed fi re to par-
tially clear the ground.
NEVAEH JAME m S an
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Sp
OF
THE
ENTERPRISE SCHOOLS
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Wed. May 11: Breakfast: French toast
Lunch: BBQ rib sandwich & tots
Thur. May 12: Breakfast: Sausage & eggs
Lunch: Corn dogs & chili
Wallowa County
Don’t
Forget
Mother’s
Day!
FREE
To sponsor a senior meal,
call 426-3840 or stop by the
Community Connection office.
Chess Club
Tourist and Players of all levels, WELCOME!
Mondays 3:30-5:30 PM
May 8th
2022
White to play and win.
“After School, and Before Monday Night Football.”
SUBSCRIBE 541-426-4567
JOSEPHY CENTER FOR
THE ARTS AND CULTURE
403 Main Street Joseph, Oregon
May Solution
QXb5
• Hanging Baskets
• Color Bowls
• Flowering Plants
• Veggies & Herbs
• Garden Decor
• Pottery
• Fruit & Flowering
Trees, Shrubs
• Perennials
• Berries
• House Plants
G
CERTIF IF IC T
AVAILAB ATES
LE
Medical Herbs and
Anti-Viral plants
including Kale, Cilantro,
Parsley, Fennel,
Blueberries, Thyme,
Mint, Basil and more.
“Family Owned & Operated”
Open 7 days a week
541-426-8733
118 Fish Hatchery Lane, Enterprise OR 97828
Across from Wallowa County Grain Growers