Forest Service to launch project near Sisters

The Sisters Ranger District will thin, mow and burn over 17,000 acres near communities in the Sisters Country in a project designed to reduce the risk of damage from wildfire.

Deschutes National Forest Supervisor John Allen signed a Decision Notice to treat 17,573 acres in the Greater Sisters Country Wildland Urban Interface on November 19.

The purpose of the Sisters Area Fuels Reduction (SAFR) project is to reduce the threat of wildfires to nearby communities and valuable natural resources, facilitate suppression of wildfires, improve forest health, and assist development and maintenance of large Ponderosa pine trees.

The agency notes that the project area has been altered by a long history of fire suppression and timber harvesting. Many areas of second growth ponderosa pine forests and "Late and Old Structure Forests" (LOSF) are very dense. There is a high risk of losing these forests to insects and wildfire without some level of active management. About 98 percent of the LOSF in the project area are at risk for bark beetle mortality, according to the Forest Service.

Dense stands of trees adjacent to private property and subdivisions make the control of wildfires difficult, compromising public and firefighter health and safety in the event of a fire.

Foresters will use a variety of landscape treatments around Black Butte Ranch, Tollgate, Crossroads, the City of Sisters and other nearby communities.

Treatments will provide defensible space adjacent to subdivisions and other private property and along 26 miles of identified escape and access corridors in the project area. Treatments include a combination of thinning, mowing of brush, and prescribed underburning. Second growth (black bark) ponderosa pine stands will be thinned in a "gappy, patchy, clumpy" distribution to mimic the natural landscape and help them develop into old growth ponderosa pine stands.

Treatments in LOSF will mimic the classic open ponderosa pine forests found historically in the project area.

The decision will generate about 12.9 million board feet of wood products, plus 59,000 tons of biomass, the Forest Service reports. The agency reports that about five miles of temporary roads are necessary to access harvest units. These roads will be closed and restored when the project is completed.

"This is a critical project for reducing the risk of wildfires in the greater Sisters area wildland urban interface improving long-term forest health and protecting the large ponderosa pines that residents and visitors value here. I am anxious to get this important work started," said Bill Anthony, Sisters District Ranger.

"The Sisters Ranger District has worked cooperatively with the City of Sisters over the years in preparing the SAFR project plan," said Brad Boyd, Mayor of Sisters. "We are pleased this plan has come to fruition. While the Sisters area has experienced several large fires over recent years, the town of Sisters remains vulnerable to a fire coming from the southwest. The SAFR project will substantially reduce the threat of wildfire to Sisters because the proposed treatments are in areas of the forest south and west of the city. This has been a long standing public safety goal for the community,"

Sisters Fire Chief Tay Robertson is also on board.

"It is a known fact that our communities in the greater Sisters area continue to be very vulnerable to major wildfire conflagration," he said. "The SAFR project is an extremely important piece of our community-wide risk reduction planning and implementation. Your local fire departments are in full support of the SAFR project. Additionally, the project furthers the goals of our Greater Sisters Community Wildfire Protection Plan."

The decision is subject to a 45-day appeal period which will end on January 10, 2009. For more information call 549-7748.