Ochoco prescribed burns cancelled; pile burning instead

PRINEVILLE, Ore. – Due to the precipitation received over the weekend, fire managers on the Ochoco National Forest have cancelled plans for prescribed burning near Spears Meadow and near Black Canyon Wilderness. They will resume burning hand piles along Forest Road 22 near Walton Lake instead.

Firefighters were able to accomplish about 600 acres of prescribed burning last week in the Willow Pine burn units, located in the southeast corner of the National Forest, about five miles south of Frazier campground near Porcupine and Sunflower creeks.

 This week they will resume burning hand piles along Forest Road 22, between Ochoco Ranger Station and Walton Lake.

The piles are left over from a mechanical thinning project to reduce hazardous fuels and fire danger along the popular route. Piles created from this type of treatment are allowed to dry for one to two years to reduce smoke emissions and increase consumption of piled material.

Light smoke will be visible during ignition periods but will be short in duration. Prescribed fire signs will be placed along the road. Burning will continue as long as weather and fuel conditions allow.

All prescribed burning is proposed, analyzed, and planned ahead of time by the Forest Service as part of restoration and fuels management projects. Fuels specialists follow policies outlined in the Oregon Smoke Management Plan, which governs prescribed fires (including pile burning) and attempts to minimize impacts to visibility and public health.

For more information, visit the Ochoco National Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/ochoco and follow us on Twitter @CentralORFire, or visit our interactive prescribed fire map online at http://go.usa.gov/3hkwJ

Prescribed burn planned for Monday on Ochoco NF

PRINEVILLE, Ore. – Fire managers on the Ochoco National Forest plan to take advantage of favorable weather on Monday to ignite another prescribed burn, the location of which depends on the amount of precipitation that arrives this weekend.

Predictions call for varying amounts of rain in the Ochocos this weekend. If conditions are dry enough on Monday, fire managers will pursue the Spears 1 prescribed burn near Spears Meadow, just west of Highway 26 and east of Rocky Butte along Forest Road 3300500, about 17 miles east of Prineville.

The Spears 1 burn unit is about 1,200 acres and will be accomplished over several days. Smoke is expected to drift north into Mill Creek Valley, but signs will be placed along Highway 26. There are no road closures expected.

An attempted prescribed burn near Spears Meadow earlier this week was too wet to burn with desired intensity and that burn is now in patrol status.

If conditions near Spears Meadow remain too wet to burn on Monday, fire managers will pursue the Upper Beaver prescribed burn unit. That burn unit is approximately 1,000 acres located immediately south of Black Canyon Wilderness and just west of Mud Springs campground.

Firefighters successfully burned this week within the Willow Pine burn units located on the drier eastern side of the National Forest, about five miles south of Frazier campground near Porcupine and Sunflower creeks.

Objectives for both the Spears 1 and Upper Beaver prescribed burns include improvement of wildlife habitat and range conditions, and removing hazardous fuels to reduce the future potential for high-intensity wildfire. 

All prescribed burning is proposed, analyzed, and planned ahead of time by the Forest Service as part of restoration and fuels management projects. Fuels specialists follow policies outlined in the Oregon Smoke Management Plan, which governs prescribed fires (including pile burning) and attempts to minimize impacts to visibility and public health.

For more information, visit the Ochoco National Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/ochoco and follow us on Twitter @CentralORFire, or visit our interactive prescribed fire map online at http://go.usa.gov/3hkwJ

Two prescribed burns planned on Ochoco NF this week

PRINEVILLE, Ore. – Fire managers on the Ochoco National Forest plan to conduct prescribed burning within two project areas this week pending favorable weather conditions.

Fire managers will burn 50 and 100-acre blocks at a time, and continue as long as weather and fuel conditions allow.

The Spears prescribed burn unit is a total of 116 acres, located about 25 miles east of Prineville near Clay Spring, about two miles southeast of Highway 26 and the Mark’s Creek residential development.

The Willow Pine prescribed burn units total 600 acres, located on the southeast corner of the National Forest, about 20 miles south of Dayville, Ore. and about five miles south of Frazier campground near Sunflower and Porcupine creeks.

The goals for both projects include improvement of wildlife habitat and range conditions, and removing hazardous fuels to reduce the future potential for high-intensity wildfire. 

Light smoke will be visible during ignition periods but will be short in duration. Prescribed fire signs will be placed along adjacent forest roads.

All prescribed burning is proposed, analyzed, and planned ahead of time by the Forest Service as part of restoration and fuels management projects. Fuels specialists follow policies outlined in the Oregon Smoke Management Plan, which governs prescribed fires (including pile burning) and attempts to minimize impacts to visibility and public health.

For more information, visit the Ochoco National Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/ochoco and follow us on Twitter @CentralORFire, or visit our interactive prescribed fire map online at http://go.usa.gov/3hkwJ

Fuels Specialists Plan to Ignite Prescribed Burn in Experimental Forest

BEND – On Thursday, fuels specialists plan to ignite a 127 acre prescribed burn within the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest, approximately 25 miles southwest of Bend.

The Pringle Falls Experimental Forest is a diverse field laboratory within the Deschutes National Forest. This is the third consecutive year fuels specialists will be putting fire on the ground in the experimental forest which continues the research of the Pacific Northwest Research Station on fuels management and forest insect and disease issues within ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests. The objective of the burn is to reduce stand densities, which should lower the susceptibility to catastrophic loss to insects, disease and fire. 

There are no road closures anticipated with this burn. Residences and businesses in the areas of the prescribed burn are advised to keep their windows and doors closed during the night hours to avoid any potential smoke impacts. If smoke drifts on to local roads, motorists should slow down, turn on headlights, and proceed with care. 

Fuels specialists will follow policies outlined in the Oregon Department of Forestry smoke management plan, which governs prescribed fires, and attempts to minimize impacts to visibility and public health.  Once ignited, units are monitored and patrolled until they are declared out. 

For more information, visit the Deschutes National Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/deschutes and follow us on Twitter @CentralORFire. 

-End-

Pile burning this week near Walton Lake on Ochoco NF

PRINEVILLE, Ore. – Fire managers on the Ochoco National Forest will take advantage of recent precipitation to burn hand piles this week along Forest Road 22 between Ochoco Ranger Station and Walton Lake, about 25 miles east of Prineville.

Light smoke will be visible during ignition periods but will be short in duration. Prescribed fire signs will be placed along the road. Burning will continue as long as weather and fuel conditions allow.

This weekend’s rain showers brought up to a half-inch of precipitation across the forest, creating wet enough conditions to safely ignite the piles of brush and branches.

The piles are left over from a mechanical thinning project to reduce hazardous fuels and fire danger along the popular route. Piles created from this type of treatment are allowed to dry for one to two years to reduce smoke emissions and increase consumption of piled material.

Fuels specialists follow policies outlined in the Oregon Smoke Management Plan, which governs prescribed fires (including pile burning) and attempts to minimize impacts to visibility and public health. 

Fall Prescribed Burning to Begin This Week Across the Deschutes National Forest

Fall Prescribed Burning to Begin This Week Across the Deschutes National Forest

Ignitions planned South and West of Bend and outside of Sisters

CENTRAL OREGON – Starting as early as Thursday, fuels specialists on the Deschutes National Forest intend to ignite several prescribed burns across the forest beginning east of Highway 97, 1 mile west of Horse Butte along the south side of Bend, and 3 miles west of Sisters, adjacent to Black Butte Ranch. If conditions remain favorable fuels specialists will continue burning a unit 3 miles northwest of Wickiup Reservoir on either Friday or Saturday and will move west of Bend at the beginning of next week with two additional prescribed burns.

The prescribed burns scheduled for Thursday include an 80-acre unit south of Bend is located within the congressionally designated Deschutes Skyline Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration boundary which receives funding towards accelerated forest restoration and a 51 acre prescribed burn outside of Sisters that is part of the Glaze Meadow Forest Restoration Project. The project objectives for the burn south of Bend include reducing hazardous fuels and creating defensible space within the wildland urban interface. The burn objectives for the Glaze Meadow unit outside of Sisters include improving and invigorating aspen growing conditions to address the declining health of aspen habitats.

On Friday or Saturday, fuels specialists are planning to burn a 281 acre unit 3 miles northwest of Wickiup Reservoir. There is a possibility of continuing to burn in the South Bend area west of Horse Butte if conditions remain favorable.

Finally, additional prescribed burns are scheduled west of Bend beginning on Monday. The first is COD 9, a 78 acre unit within the West Bend Project area about 3 miles southwest of Bend, across from Widgi Creek Golf Course. Next up could be “Wet Unit 3,” an 85 acre unit south of Skyliner’s road on the east side of the Skyliner subdivision.

All prescribed burns have been scheduled to take advantage of the cooler and more humid fall season, which minimizes the detrimental impacts of a summer wildfire by consuming surface fuels and reducing shrub and small tree densities. These prescribed fire projects are being conducted to reduce the threat of large scale wildfire to the community of Bend.

No road closures are anticipated with any of the projects although drivers can expect road flaggers on Skyliner’s Road during periods of time where dense smoke may limit visibility. Smoke from the South Bend unit will likely impact Woodside Ranch residences, particularly those located along Ridgeview Drive.  Smoke from the West Bend COD burn could impact the Highlands subdivision and the golf course in Tetherow as well as Widgi Creek, Entrada, and Inn of the 7th Mountain, which are also nearby. Smoke from the Wet Unit 3 burn will impact Skyliner residents.

Residences and businesses in the areas of all of these prescribed burns are advised to keep their windows and doors closed during the night hours to avoid any potential smoke impacts.  If smoke drifts on to local roads, motorists should slow down, turn on headlights, and proceed with care.  Residences and businesses in the area are advised to keep their windows and doors closed during the night hours to avoid any potential smoke impacts. 

Fuels specialists will follow policies outlined in the Oregon Department of Forestry smoke management plan, which governs prescribed fires, and attempts to minimize impacts to visibility and public health.  Once ignited, units are monitored and patrolled until they are declared out. 

For more information, visit the Deschutes National Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/deschutes and follow us on Twitter @CentralORFire.  

Two recent fires are a reminder of fire danger

As hunting season gets underway, fire managers want to remind everyone that fire danger is still a concern in Central Oregon, even though campfires are allowed in most places on federal public lands.

On Friday afternoon, firefighters responded to a small, human-caused fire on the Ochoco National Forest. An investigation determined the fire was caused by an exploding Tannerite target.

Yesterday, firefighters responded to another fire on the Ochoco National Forest, determined to have started sometime over the weekend from a campfire that was not properly extinguished.

The campers had since left and it was apparent they had put some water on the fire and mixed in dirt. Covering the fire in dirt allowed the unextinguished embers to smolder and later creep out into nearby duff and pine litter igniting a fire.

“Nighttime temperatures are dropping, but we still haven’t received much precipitation in Central Oregon since early July,” said Fire Prevention Specialist Stacy Lacey. “We’re asking everyone spending time out in the woods this fall to be vigilant with fire. That includes minding your campfire, being careful where you shoot, and following the prohibition on exploding targets.” 

Fire managers want to remind everyone that exploding targets, tracer ammo and incendiary ammo are illegal on public lands in Oregon and Washington. See attached flyer for some simple, easy precautions to take when shooting on public land.

Also, campfires are still prohibited on private and state-administered lands in Central Oregon, so check with the local Rural Fire Protection Districts on current restrictions.

For current restrictions on federal land, go here: http://centralorfireinfo.blogspot.com/2015/09/fire-restrictions-reduced-on-federal.html

Or stop by the Hunter’s Information Booth today through Friday in front of Ray’s Market, 1535 NE Third Street, in Prineville to get the answers to all of your questions about hunting, camping, campfires, and driving on federal, state, county and private lands across central and eastern Oregon.