Smoke settles in Sisters Country

Folks in Sisters are constantly reminded of the perks of being surrounded by forests. Beautiful scenery, open spaces, and recreational opportunities lure visitors and new residents each year. Last week - and perhaps in weeks to come - Sisters citizens will also be reminded of one of the pitfalls. As smoke fills the high school commons and plagues those in the drive-thru getting a McDonald's fix, some in Sisters are all in a huff.

"There are about 500 acres of piles on fire now," said Mark Rapp, fire management officer for the Sisters Ranger District.

Those smoldering 500 acres of piles, mostly around the Crossroads neighborhood, created billows of smoke that thickened the air in Sisters Country last week. A high-pressure system challenged the Sisters Ranger District, and crews were forced to suspend new ignitions as the smoke worsened.

"We regret very much that the smoke has settled in," said Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony. "We were anticipating a front that would bring a breeze, but instead we experienced a stagnant inversion.

"When there is no wind to move it, smoke flows much like water," Anthony explained. "That's what we've seen this past week - the smoke has followed the Trout Creek drainage, going to the high school, McDonald's, and on to Indian Ford."

Anthony explains that this season has been particularly challenging, as the Sisters Ranger District tries to find windows of favorable conditions to burn portions of the 5,000 acres of piles they have scattered around Sisters.

"This is about three times the amount of piles we normally have," said Rapp. There are piles near the Plainview neighborhood, to the west of Highway 20, near Tollgate, by Crossroads, next to Black Butte Ranch, in Camp Sherman, and along Forest Service Road 16 in the higher elevations.

Back in 2009, the Sisters Ranger District received $4 million from President Obama's stimulus package. Much of the stimulus money went to "shovel-ready projects" that could be implemented in 10 days. Local companies and laborers were employed to hand-thin overgrown areas in the forests surrounding Sisters Country.

Now the Sisters Ranger District is trying to burn these piles before the next fire season.

"The thinning was accelerated due to the stimulus money, but we received no additional funding to treat the resulting piles," Rapp explained. "Each acre has, on the low end, about 50 piles and, on the high end, about 100 piles."

That means that the district has been dealing with about 375,000 piles of hand-thinned materials in an extremely dry fall and winter.

"We have already burned about 4,000 acres without a lot of issues," Rapp said.

For the most part, residents of Sisters Country are behind the effort.

"The community overall has been very supportive of thinning projects which reduce the threat of fire and promote the health of the forest," said Anthony. "We even get requests from homeowners to thin the areas around their properties."

Forest thinning reduces the fuels, inhibiting the spread and threat of wildfire. Thinning also helps old-growth thrive and lessens the impact of some harmful insect infestations.

"We always try to find windows when we still have our seasonal work force and we can minimize major social impacts of the smoke," said Anthony. "We try to plan around major community events as best we can."

Although the Sisters Ranger District has had some success in the past at selling piles as biomass to create energy at, for example, the saw mill in Lebanon, currently there is not much demand for biomass. A sale is unlikely. This leaves no other option than to burn the piles before the seasonal workforce is let go and before the threat of fire is high.

The smoke is expected to disperse throughout the coming week, but the Forest Service will continue to burn piles until the snow flies.

"What we have left is closer to town," Rapp said.

While the Sisters Ranger District will keep a close eye to expected weather patterns, the threat of hazy days in Sisters will continue.