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BLM postpones planned burns 30-day moratorium will affect 1,100 acres in Southern Oregon By PAUL FATTIG The fire now raging in New Mexico squelched plans for prescribed burning on 1,100 acres of federal forest land in Jackson and Josephine counties this spring. That includes 800 acres in the Bureau of Land Management's Medford District and at least 300 acres on the Butte Falls Ranger District in the Rogue River National Forest. The controlled-burn plans went up in smoke with last Friday's 30-day moratorium for prescribed burning on federal land in the West issued by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. "We still have some hazardous fuels out there that need to be treated, but they will be bumped back in the system for next fall or spring," said John Dinwiddie, acting fire management officer for the district. "We will not be burning during the fire season this year. Safety is our number one concern." The annual fire season, the period when open burning is not allowed without a permit, usually begins around mid-June and continues until mid-October in Jackson and Josephine counties. The Oregon Department of Forestry, in coordination with other natural resource agencies, determines when fire season begins and ends each year. The BLM is an arm of the Interior while the Forest Service is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture. "We've pretty much completed our burning (for the spring)," said Steve Waterman, spokesman for the Rogue River forest. "We still have about 300 acres more to do up in Butte Falls. But, in another 30 days, that could be out the window." Both agencies use prescribed burning as a tool to reduce the threat of large dry-season fires by burning brush and other vegetation. The activity is also used to improve forest health and wildlife habitat and remove logging slash. The 45,000-acre fire which burned more than 200 homes in New Mexico started as a prescribed burn by the National Park Service at Bandelier National Monument on May 4. Driven by high winds, it escaped, resulting in the moratorium on prescribed burning, although government agencies could still grant some exceptions. The moratorium is not expected to affect prescribed burning in the high-elevation Crater Lake National Park this year because those activities don't occur until summer after the snowpack has melted, park officials said. But the dry season arrives earlier at the low-elevation BLM district, with its checkerboard pattern of ownership among private parcels, officials said. The 800 acres of prescribed burns are the last of some 2,000 acres the BLM had earmarked for burning last fall and this spring in the district. The area yet to burn includes about 700 acres in the Applegate Valley and 100 acres in the district Grants Pass Resource Area. Although the 800 acres will not be torched, the BLM will use mechanical equipment to reduce the buildup of vegetation and will hand-pile woody debris, Dinwiddie said. All told, about 4,000 acres was scheduled for such treatment since last fall. About 40 percent of the total has been treated, Dinwiddie said. Even without the moratorium, the sites are not burned if they are too dry or too wet. The potential for winds blowing smoke from the fire into populated areas can also halt prescribed burning, officials said. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA