Forests near Sisters may become classroom

Some 400 acres of county-owned forestland located in Fremont Canyon eight miles northeast of Sisters may become part of an outdoor classroom for natural resource students at Central Oregon Community College and Oregon State University-Cascades, according to Joe Stutler, Deschutes County forester.

Stutler has proposed to Deschutes County Commissioners and the colleges that some or all of the 7,000 acres of county-owned lands be made available for outdoor studies. The proposal has met with initial interest from both the county and the colleges.

Stutler is now drafting a partnership agreement looking ahead to a March 1 signing.

The Sisters area lands are in two lots of 240 and 160 acres west of the county road that runs from Sisters to Lake Billy Chinook. Adjacent to the county forests are 320 acres of state-owned lands and more than 600 acres of federal Bureau of Land Management lands that might eventually also become available for the project.

"As I became familiar with the county-owned lands, I saw the opportunity to utilize these lands for much more than just selling them," Stutler said. "Some have some potential for development, but there is also a need to preserve open space. Some lands also could be used to present demonstrations of urban forestry to the public.

"Then, I started thinking about how these lands could be used as outdoor laboratories by the 40 to 50 natural resource students at the local colleges," Stutler said.

Stutler spent the better part of two full days touring the properties with college staff and discussing the concept. The staff supported the idea, college department heads concurred after they were briefed and Stutler agreed to draft the agreement for review by county legal counsel and county commissioners.

An inventory is needed of what is on each property, Stutler added, something that college students could conduct as a learning experience.

"The county lands are a mixture of the types of ecosystems that we see all around the county," Stutler said. "The lands north of Sisters look just like national forest lands with beautiful stands of ponderosa pine being invaded by juniper.

"There are multi-lots of an acre or more between Sunriver and La Pine that the county acquired through land exchanges or tax foreclosure when the lands were determined to be non-buildable because of the high water table. The county owns about 540 acres around La Pine that will be developed as a 'firewise' neighborhood and placed into private ownership."

The county also owns sagebrush lands and juniper-covered areas east of Redmond, Stutler added.

Stutler spends about half of his time working with fire agencies and local communities on community fire plans.

He is reviewing current and proposed county ordinances aimed at preventing wildfire losses through fuels reduction and other actions.

"What needs to happen in Deschutes County is an ordinance that establishes a vacant lot standard," he said.

"The fire prevention standards under Senate Bill 360 are the very best that could be done a the time, but I believe more needs to be done beyond having just a 20-foot buffer zone around a vacant lot. We have a group working on that and hopefully we will have that done fairly quickly."

Stutler came to the new county forester position last June 1 after a 35-year career with the Forest Service.

He had worked as fire management officer and district ranger on six national forests in California before moving to central Oregon in 1999.

During the last years of his Forest Service career he was chief of fire operations for national forests in Oregon and Washington working out of the Redmond Air Center.

He then worked as chief of operations for a private wildland fire department before coming to the county position.

"Both jobs kept me on the road 75 percent of the time and I wanted to spend more time at home," Stutler said.