Burning season gets underway

'Tis the season for prescribed burning in Sisters Country.

The season kicked off with a 51-acre fire set east of Black Butte Ranch in the Glaze Forest restoration project last week. The purpose of the burn was to expand and increase aspen habitat primarily through burning off duff, which requires an increased level of intensity.

More work is planned across the Sisters Ranger District and the Deschutes National Forest generally. Prescribed fire is used to reduce fuels for wildfires and to enhance forest health. The type of forest found in Sisters Country evolved with regular cycles of fire that cleared out underbrush and thinned out stands, leaving the forest healthier. Now, prescribed fire is used to mimic that natural process.

But drought conditions across the region are complicating fire managers' job. Forest Service spokesperson Kassidy Kern told The Nugget that fire managers touched off a test burn last week and had to douse it because dry conditions were creating too much intensity.

"We were seeing much more active fire behavior than we wanted," she said.

So fire managers "are just going to look for windows" when conditions will allow them to burn safely and effectively, Kern said.

The area has seen some moisture, and Kern noted that "fuel moisture in one unit may be wildly different than in another unit."

Most of the burning activity planned for the Deschutes National Forest in 2015-16 is south of Bend, but there are several areas to the west of Sisters between highways 20 and 242 that are scheduled for prescribed burning when conditions allow for it.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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