Resource specialists and fire managers from the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Oregon State Department of Forestry work closely together planning, implementing and monitoring hazard fuel reduction projects. Project locations and treatment methods are chosen carefully, with specific objectives. Land management agencies coordinate prescribed burning with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to ensure compliance with national clean air standards.

Hazard fuel reduction projects reduce the unnatural build-up of fuel in the forest. Fuels can be natural fuels, forest vegetation or debris, activity fuels, debris left over from woodcutters or forest thinning projects or ladder fuels, small trees or brush that carry a ground fire up into the canopy. Since 1996, firefighters and fuels specialists have treated 310,000 acres in the COFMS boundary.

Natural or prescribed fire can reverse, advance, or maintain a stage of ecological succession by preparing seedbeds, triggering seed germination, inducing re-sprouting, and reducing or eliminating competition for moisture, nutrients, space, and sunlight. Similar, but more limited effects can result with the use of fire in the forest understory or brush and grass ecosystems. Certain types of wildlife species will be favored, or adversely affected, depending upon their ability to adapt to a fire's intensity and effects. Ensuing mosaics of age classes and types generally provide a suitable environment for a diversity of plant and animal life. Fire can also be an effective regulator of some insect and disease outbreaks by limiting the abundance and distribution of susceptible forest types and age classes, thus contributing to the overall health and productivity of a forested ecosystem.

Dead and down trees covering the forest floor provide fuel for wildfires

Why burn?

• Reduce hazard fuels, which lessen wildfire intensity making them easier to control and reduce suppression costs.
• Maintain and improve forest and range health by recycling nutrients, decreasing competition for water and sunlight and increasing resistance to bugs and disease.
• Improve wildlife habitat by increasing food supplies such as native grasses, forbs and shrubs.

Prescribed burns can remove western juniper and help restore important shrub-steppe habitat.

How long will it take to reduce hazardous fuels?

It is safe to assume that prescribed burning and mechanical treatments such as thinning and mowing will continue to be important tools for improving and maintaining forest and grassland health for years to come. With the assistance of new administrative processes and funding made available through legislation such as the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and the Healthy Forest Initiative, land management agencies will continually look for ways to accomplish the work to be done.

Often the window of opportunity when fuels and weather conditions are just right, small. Burning can occur at seemingly unexpected times.

What about the smoke it creates?

Smoke from prescribed burning is a short-term effect of restoring healthy forests and is a fraction of the amount of smoke generated by high-intensity wildfires. Most smoke from prescribed fires disperses quickly. Fire managers monitor the smoke from their burns, and try to avoid burning during poor smoke dispersal conditions.

The goal is always to have prescribed fires burn quickly, cleanly, under control and for smoke to be carried up and away from the area. Conditions are watched constantly and many times, scheduled burns are cancelled at the last minute if things aren’t right for meeting that goal.

Weather and winds are unpredictable and there is always a chance that smoke will end up in the valleys.

Hazards to Watch-out for ... Smoke from prescribed burns may be along roads, especially late evening and early morning when cool air causes the smoke to settle. Be cautious when visiting an area after a prescribed burn.

Does prescribed fire protect private property?

Private property may benefit from a nearby hazard fuels reduction project, though there are no guarantees. Reducing forest fuels reduces flame lengths, increasing the ability of firefighters to safely protect a home.

Prescribed fire also reduces potential for long-distance spotting from a wildfire. Homeowners can increase the chances of their homes surviving wildfire by creating survivable space around their property.

For more information on creating defensible space visit: www.firefree.org