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BLM fights fire with fire Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Bob Pasley, a silviculturist with the Bureau of Land Management�s Medford District, kills his torch after igniting a pile of slash high in the Applegate�s Thompson Creek drainage Friday. The BLM is conducting the prescribed burn now because a dry fall and early winter delayed the activity. By Paul Fattig APPLEGATE � Bright orange flames shot a dozen feet into the air Friday afternoon after Bob Pasley ignited the debris pile with his drip torch. But Pasley, a silviculturist with the Bureau of Land Management�s Medford District, wasn�t worried. "These are optimum conditions right now," he explained. "The burning is about right. You want consumption, but you don�t want to affect the live trees." A veteran firefighter in addition to working as a forester, Pasley pointed to smoldering mounds of ash dotting a grove of trees across a ravine. "We started those three hours ago," he said. "Within a couple of hours, they were burned out. That�s what we want." The goal of the prescribed burns Thursday and Friday on the western slope of Tallowbox Mountain overlooking the Thompson Creek drainage is to improve forest health while reducing the potential for catastrophic fires come summer, said forester Chris Johnson, fuels management specialist for the district. "We want to reduce fire hazard as well as improve forest restoration by bringing fire back into the ecosystem," Johnson said, noting the debris was leftover from earlier logging operations. About two dozen people, most wearing canary-yellow, fire-resistant uniforms and carrying drip torches, were assigned to the two-day project, which covered about 95 acres. The burn piles were stacked in the winter and spring of 2000 and covered with a thin sheet of black plastic. The wood ignited like kindling. Because of a changing weather pattern expected today, no prescribed burning is anticipated in the near future, said Allen Mitchell, a Forest Service fuels management specialist temporarily assigned to the BLM. Rain is expected early next week. "We�ll be having people out here this weekend keeping an eye on things," Mitchell said. "We stay on these until we feel comfortable they are out." Early this month, a smoldering fire from logging debris burned on private land late last year flared up, burning some 200 acres � including BLM land � in the Wagner Creek drainage south of Talent. The Medford area has received only a little over 5 inches of rain since the rainy season began Sept. 1, compared to an average 11 inches for this time of year. The abnormally dry conditions have sparked additional caution by the agency, said district spokesman Don Ferguson. "The heavy fuels (large trees) out here are just about as dry as they were in the fall," Ferguson said. "We haven�t gotten the moisture recovery that we usually get by now." The district has some 1,600 acres of prescribed burning left this year, but it may not be able to finish the job if the unusual dry trend continues, officials said. The agency usually completes the burning of its hand piles in late fall and December. However, the goal is to return within a year to the areas burned this week to conduct an "underburn," Johnson said. That prescribed fire involves burning lightly along the forest floor. Most of the underburning normally occurs in the spring, although it depends on the weather. "Normally, a fire would come in here every 5 to 20 years, keeping things clean under the trees," he said. But human intervention of the natural fire cycle has caused an abnormally dense buildup of vegetation, he noted. "The vegetation gets dense, the ground fuels build up and we end up with an explosive situation if we get a wildfire in the summer," he said. He noted it will be decades before the agency�s goal of returning the area to its natural state is accomplished. To protect air quality during the burning periods, the agency is working closely with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the National Weather Service, the Oregon Department of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service. Conditions must allow the fire to burn safely while blowing the smoke away from populated areas, Johnson said. The BLM has installed three permanent automated air quality stations in the district as well as a portable unit to monitor air quality. The public can call 618-2354 to hear a recorded daily update on prescribed burning activity in the Medford District. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.