Brush mowing creates fire buffer

In spite of winter conditions, the U.S. Forest Service is continuing its proactive fire management program in the wildland forest interface near Sisters. Currently being targeted is a 600-foot-wide strip of forestland running nearly seven miles all the way from behind the Lazy Z Ranch to Gist Road. In all, the project encompasses approximately 500 acres.

Last week, David Elpi, of Sisters Forest Products, and fellow contractor Keith Ross were operating brush mowers off Harrington Loop behind the KOA site and the Sisters Rodeo Grounds. Motorists can see some of their handiwork at numerous points along Highway 20 southeast of town.

The goal is to create a fire buffer near populated areas by reducing potential wildfire fuels. "This mowing is the last phase in creating a very large defensible space fuel break around homes in that area," said Elpi. "We are making some dramatic changes to the landscape visible from Highway 20 near the KOA Campground."

Work in this area began last year and was kicked off by a visit from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who explained how federal stimulus money was earmarked for projects like this one. Many small trees were removed and the woody debris stacked for burning as the first step in the process. The Forest Service also permitted private parties to come in and salvage cut trees for personal-use firewood.

Many of those initial debris piles have already been burned, and the mowers have been going through to further reduce combustible vegetation in the area. Elpi said that areas where the piles were already burned are easier to mow, since the machines just plow right through ash piles.

He pointed out the finished and "park-like" appearance of those areas.

The area being mowed now, however, still contains many burn piles that were cut and stacked in just the last few weeks.

Jinny Pitman is the Forest Service's Assistant Fire Management Officer for the area and District Fuels Program Manager. Pitman hopes to see the remaining burn piles near KOA gone before summer. Since most of the stacked vegetation in that area is juniper, she expects that it will burn well even though it's still green. Regardless, she wants the piles gone and didn't rule out physical removal if burning proves to be not feasible.

"Frequent low-intensity fire is a great benefit," Pitman said, "providing benefits to humans and wildlife. Fire cleanses the forest floor. It replenishes native vegetation and cycles nitrogen to the soil."

Pitman said the Forest Service plans to prescribe low-intensity burns for the area in the not-too-distant future.

"It could be burned as early as the next two or three years, depending on the vegetation growth," she said. "Mowing now will reduce the smoke; and, hopefully, the result will be lots of palatable fresh growth."

She explained that old bitterbrush does not provide prime forage for wildlife, but young bitterbrush and more grasses in the newly thinned areas will be a boon for the local deer population.

"Burning accentuates growth of native grasses," she said.

The area being targeted now is part of a larger strategy, locally referred to as SAFR (Sisters Area Fuel Reduction, pronounced "safer").

"The primary reason to burn," Pitman said, "is to reintroduce low-intensity fire into a fire-adaptive ecosystem, which applies to all ponderosa-pine-dominated forests. Wildfires will continue to occur here in Central Oregon. The question is would we prefer fast-moving high-intensity fires that result in high loss and high cost...or low-intensity slower-moving fires with no loss and low cost? Essentially, more prescribed fire means less wildfire."

Both Pitman and Elpi said they expected to see the mowing on this section completed sometime in March. The pacing of the various steps is designed not only to enhance public safety but to reduce the amount of smoke generated.

"After all," Elpi said, "you get a lot more smoke if everything goes up in a wildfire. This way, we have a chance to control and reduce the smoke, at the same time making the community a whole lot safer."