Burning continues near Sisters

The Forest Service's controlled burns along the Highway 20 corridor will likely continue until about Thanksgiving.

Daryl Davis, U.S. Forest Service representative, says that the Highway 20 burn project is going well and is working its way down from Santiam Pass toward Sisters.

The Forest Service has been working to enhance forest health and fire safety in an area that was hard hit by insect damage and a long history of fire suppression.

The controlled burn program is designed to restore the natural pattern of cyclic burning and reduce hazardous buildups of dead wood, needles, cones and other combustible vegetation.

According to Davis, 280 acres between the pass and Black Butte Ranch have already been burned.

The plan was to start at the pass level and work down toward lower elevations.

It's important that controlled burns occur when seasonal moisture content is high enough to reduce the danger of wildfire, but not so high that fires will fizzle out.

The forest burns have to be timed to keep ahead of the winter weather. Some of the early burn sites are already blanketed with snow, so the program is on schedule but will have to keep moving at a brisk rate.

The Forest Service's current objective is to burn the thousands of slash piles stacked by prison and jail inmates over the summer.

Davis says that approximately 1,000 acres of forest lands have slash piles awaiting the torch. Forest Service personnel have recently concentrated on tracts surrounding Black Butte Ranch that total 135 acres.

Many Forest Service employees enjoyed a three day weekend over the Veterans Day holiday -- but not all of them.

Shane Robson was among those who didn't.

"Burning conditions are great," he said, as he headed out the door with a dusting of ashes on his shoulders. "

As soon as the Black Butte Ranch piles are burned, the forest staff will start working their way toward town.

"We have good moisture," said Davis, "but not enough that it gets our piles too wet. It's been going real smooth."

Three tracts also are scheduled for "underburning," in which a low-intensity fire is ignited and allowed to burn everything on the forest floor beneath the tree canopy.

Davis said, though, that the window of opportunity for those burns may close before they can get to them. Those proposed burn sites total 161 acres.

Two are near Black Butte Ranch, and one is south of Sisters along the irrigation canal.

"We'll keep going until we finish or the snow stops us," said Davis. "We'll probably be done around Thanksgiving, but it all depends on the weather."