News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
With high temperatures, low moisture and thick grasses fed by a wet spring, the Sisters country has become a late-summer tinder box.
"It looks like we're finally into fire season around here," said Rock Gerke of the Sisters Ranger District. "Friday (August 15), if we'd had a fire it could have been bad news with that wind we had."
The district has moved into Level II fire precaution status, which restricts wood-cutting and other power-tool operations in the forest to the hours between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m.
State forest lands are under "regulated closure." Under those restrictions, "smoking is prohibited while traveling, except in vehicles on improved roads, in boats on the water, and on sand or gravel bars which lay between water and high water marks which are free of vegetation."
Open fires are prohibited except at designated locations; portable cooking stoves using liquefied or bottled fuels are allowed.
Use of motorized vehicles, including motorcycles and all terrain vehicles, is prohibited, except on improved roads.
Other restrictions and requirements are in place; call the Oregon Department of Forestry, 549-2731, for more information.
Gerke urged forest users to be especially aware of fire danger, noting that trouble can happen in a flash.
"I would just ask people to think twice before they put that cigarette down," Gerke said.
Last Thursday evening, August 14, Gerke noted, a camper at Scout Lake hung a lantern in a tree while lighting a second lantern. The heat from the hanging lantern ignited some dry moss almost immediately, sending fire into the crown of the tree.
"It just goes to show you how dry things are right now," Gerke said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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