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BLM to torch 4,700 acres through May to help prevent fires By PAUL FATTIG Nearly 4,700 acres in the Medford District of the Bureau of Land Management may be put to the torch in the next seven months. The prescribed burns are part of the agency's efforts to reduce fire danger, improve forest health and remove logging slash. The goal is to complete the prescribed burning in early May. But the planned fires are subject to weather as well as wind conditions, said Mitch Maycox, the district's fire management officer. The sites will not be burned if they are too dry or too wet, he said. The potential for winds blowing smoke from the fire into populated areas will also halt the prescribed burning, he added. The district, in conjunction with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and officials from the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests, has developed the nation's first interagency smoke monitoring program. Under the program, meteorologists from the DEQ and the National Weather Service are consulted to determine weather and wind conditions predicted for the burn day. In addition to requiring that the smoke will disperse well, the wind must be such that the smoke will not be allowed to pool in the Medford/Ashland and Grants Pass areas, Maycox said. For updated information on prescribed fire activities, the public is encouraged to call 770-2354. The recording will provide information on the location and dates of the planned burning. The plan calls for broadcast burning, underburning and pile burning. Crews are stationed in critical areas to prevent the fire from escaping. In broadcast burning, the perimeter of the area to be burned is usually burned first to create a secure fire line, then hand-held drip torches or a torch hanging from a helicopter is used to ignite the area in a high-intensity blaze. With underburning, brush is burned by a low-intensity fire while the overstory is untouched. Pile burning is simply burning piles of logging and other debris. Prescribed burning reduces the potential for a disastrous wildfire during the fire season by removing fuel while benefitting the ecological system, Maycox said. The amount to be burned -- up to 4,690 acres in the district -- has been the average amount for the last three years, Maycox said. "This will probably be our base for the future," he said, adding the goal is to first treat areas that have the highest risk for wildfires during the summer. Plans call for burning 2,851 acres in the Applegate Valley. About 700 acres will be burned in the district on the north side of the Rogue River between the cities of Rogue River and Butte Falls. Aside from about 205 acres in the Glendale area, the remainder of the acreage to be burned in is Josephine County. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA