Contact: Darcy Weseman (541) 278-3722
PENDLETON, Ore. – With the recent warmer and drier weather, fire management
officials on the Umatilla National Forest are preparing to implement early
season prescribed burning activities as soon as Monday, May 13, across portions
of the Forest.
“Frequent,
low-intensity fire is essential for healthy forests and reducing the risk of
uncharacteristic wildfire caused by excessive fuel buildup,” said Andrew
Stinchfield, Deputy Fire Staff Officer.
Prescribed
burning is an effective tool for removing excessive amounts of brush, shrubs,
and trees, while also encouraging the growth of native vegetation. In addition
to reducing wildfire risk, prescribed fire also improves overall forest health
and resilience to insects and diseases, and enhances habitat for elk, deer, and
other wildlife.
Prescribed
burning is also highly dependent on weather conditions, which have to be within
a narrow criteria window in order to use prescribed fire. Factors such as wind
speed and direction, temperatures, relative humidity, and fuel moistures are
all taken into consideration prior to implementing a prescribed burn
operation.
Each prescribed burn represents many years of planning and preparation to ensure
burn operations meet prescriptive conditions that allow for successful burns
that provide multiple benefits to resources. The
forest works closely with the Oregon Department of Forestry and Washington
Department of Natural Resources in accordance with the State’s Smoke Management
Plans to determine when, where, and how much is burned on a daily basis. Potential smoke impacts, looking at volume of
smoke, direction of spread, and mixing heights, are determined prior to each burn. All burns will be monitored until a season
ending rain or snow occurs.
Early season burning operations typically
begin in spring (or when the snow melts) and occur until the beginning of fire
season. The Umatilla National Forest has developed a prescribed fire
interactive map displaying planned burning activities, which is available at https://tinyurl.com/y8b433th. The
interactive map allows the user to zoom in on certain areas and click on a burn
unit for more information (such as acreage, status, etc). When burning
operations begin the interactive map will be updated to display which burn
units are actively burning. Maps of the proposed prescribed burns are also located
on InciWeb at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5808/. Additional information on prescribed burning is available on the Umatilla National
Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/umatilla/ or at any forest office.
For more information about the Umatilla National Forest’s
Prescribed Burn program, please contact one of the following Forest Service
personnel:
·
Tara Mackleit, Pomeroy
Ranger - (509) 843-4676
·
Joby Sciarrino, Walla Walla
Ranger District - (509) 522-6283
·
Jesse Bohnsack, North Fork
John Day Ranger District - (541) 427-5399
·
Kristen Marshall, Heppner
Ranger District - (541) 676-2130
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