Foresters restore burned areas

The U.S. Forest Service has quietly gone about replanting some 600,000 trees in areas damaged by wildfires over the last year. The work of the last few months has focused on restoring and improving habitat in the severely fire damaged areas surrounding Sisters.

Although the lion's share of the work has been conducted by the Forest Service, the agency has received a lot of help from various community groups, organizations and individuals.

"We had a lot of people that helped with the project this year," said Dave Priest of the U.S. Forest Service.

There was a broad spectrum of groups that donated both time and money to the project. The educational program Wolftree, Oregon Hunters Association, the Sisters Cub Scouts, Oregon State University, The Natural Resources Club, the Boy Scouts, Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, Curlew Job Corp from Washington and Integrated Environmental Expedition (IEE) from both the Sisters middle and high schools are some who participated.

"This year we planted up by Round Lake, up by the base of Three Fingered Jack. Oregon Trout sponsored it this year and provided the trees. We were planting red alder to restore the riparian zone," said Cory Stengel, scout master for Sisters Cub Scout Pack 139.

The scouts have been involved in the restoration project for many years.

"We planted trees last year around Suttle Lake. This is an ongoing project, and the Forest Service is really kind to let us help them out and teach the kids about reforestation," said Stengel.

The main areas where work has been completed this year were the B&B, the Eyerly and the Black Crater fire zones, and a lot has been accomplished in the devastated areas.

"We have planted over 5,000 acres this year," said Priest.

He explained that certain areas become priorities in the restoration process due to natural events.

"The invasive plants are a big problem which is why we have concentrated on the B&B instead of the Eyerly. The Eyerly is in a lower zone, and it is a much tougher area to grow things so the competition is not as strong," said Priest.

"With the Black Crater we focused on the riparian zones along Trout Creek. The fire burned so hot there that it would have a hard time coming back on its own. There is an Oregon group called the Natural Resources Club, and they came out and helped to replant the riparian zones. We are trying to get the vegetation to come back as soon as possible because it is a fish bearing creek."

Although there has been a lot of reforestation, there is still much to do to bring the several damaged areas back to a natural state.

"In the last five years we have planted about 15,000 acres in the Eyerly and B&B fire areas. My best guess is that we will plant another 3,000 next year, but we won't know for sure the estimate until we can finalize our surveys," said Priest.

"Part of the B&B has come back to natural region and, of course, we do not plant those areas, but the Eyerly does not, in general, have natural regeneration. These were big fires, and there are large chunks of ground where there are no seed trees. There was just nothing left to seed. We did one survey called the Gun Site Basin in the Eyerly where there were only 12 live trees left on 1,500 acres."