Foresters set to touch off prescribed fire

The spring burning season will get underway this week.

The Deschutes Land Trust (DLT) plans to conduct pile burning on approximately five acres at Whychus Canyon Preserve near Sisters this week. The burning will complete the Land Trust's first phase of fuels reduction and habitat restoration work and will be conducted by GFP Enterprises.

While the preserve will not be closed during the burning, DLT asks that visitors use good judgment and stay away from the piles should they visit during this time.

The burn piles consist primarily of small-diameter juniper that was thinned as part of a 100-acre restoration project initiated in 2012. Whychus Canyon Preserve was acquired by the Land Trust in 2010 to conserve and restore fish and wildlife habitat. DLT states that thinning encroaching juniper from ponderosa pine and aspen stands improves wildlife habitat and helps protect nearby subdivisions from the threat of wildfire.

The pile burning is weather dependent and will be completed in consultation with the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and in compliance with ODF's smoke management plan. The contractor will postpone burning if weather conditions are unfavorable.

Other weather-dependent burning operations are set to get underway west of Sisters.

The Forest Service will conduct burns east of Black Butte Ranch within the Glaze Meadow Restoration Project area boundary. According to the Sisters Ranger District, "The purpose of Glaze Restoration RX is to utilize prescribed fire to restore ponderosa pine forest ecosystems to a more natural and healthy stand density by restoring the role of low-intensity fire..."

Prescribed fire also removes fuels that could feed bigger, more high-intensity wildfires.

The Sisters Ranger District is also planning prescribed burns in the Metolius Basin.

Public open houses have been conducted on both projects. For more information, contact Sisters Ranger District Fuels Program Manager Jinny Reed at 541-549-7644, or Prescribed Fire Technician Trevor Miller at 541-549-7638, or Prescribed Fire Technician Amanda Stamper at 541-549-7680. Those interested can be placed on a notification list.