Forests soaked but undamaged

The forests around Sisters may have been soaked by a month of rain and snow, but so far damage has been relatively light.

A landslide damaged a maintenance shop and some vehicles at Camp Davidson and a portion of the Jack Lake Road has washed away, but no other major damage has been reported, according to Sisters Ranger District Road Manager Dale Putman.

However, Forest Service officials are keeping a close eye on the situation, particularly in areas burned by the B&B and Eyerly fires.

“The potential is there (for flooding and landslides). We’re very concerned,” Putman said. “There’s an awful lot of snow up there with a lot of water content in it.”

The concern is sparked by the relatively warm termperatures that have led to very wet snow, followed by periods of rain. That condition meant that a ditch along the Jack Lake Road (FS 12) “carried way more water than it could handle for a while,” Putman said. The resulting flooding washed away three to five inches of gravel from the road edge about three feet into the roadway and running for a considerable distance.

So far, such damage has been confined to lower elevations. It’s real wet out there, but “what we’ve got running out there is relatively clear yet,” Putman said. “We don’t have a lot of muddy water, which is a good sign.”

Putman’s concern is that a “rain-on-snow” event could trigger more damaging flooding, especially in burned areas.

“This is the first significant rain-on-snow we’ve had since the fires,” he noted. “If we were to get a ‘pineapple express’ (a warm storm out of the Hawaiian Islands) ... we’re still primed for having a problem.”

The Forest Service bent most of its rehabilitation efforts in burned areas to preventing water runoff damage. Culverts and ditiches were created or cleaned out to channel water, water bars were created in slopes to prevent water from cutting deep scores into mountainsides and carrying sedimentation into streams.

Putman said the Forest Service has been closely monitoring the slope between Highway 20 and Suttle Lake. It’s an area prone to slides and much vegetation was burned away during the B&B Fire. So far, the slope is holding up well — except in the area of Camp Davidson. Forest Service officials hope that the weather will cooperate and prevent a rain-on-snow event that could carry mud into the lake and undermine the highway.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

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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