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SUNNY Temp: 89 °F Wind: NNW at 12 mph Tuesday, June 3, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend May 30, 2003 Blaze could spark early start to fire season By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune A 47-acre wildfire contained Thursday near Grants Pass has state foresters mulling whether to start summer fire restrictions as soon as late next week. And once the official fire season begins, local residents can expect earlier and tighter rules on mowing grass and lighting campfires as Southern Oregon limps half-staffed for firefighting through June until re-enforcements are hired. Budget cuts have left just a dozen Oregon Department of Forestry workers available in Jackson and Josephine counties now, when the stand-by crew normally would be twice that and growing weekly as fire danger rises, said Dan Thorpe, the department’s Medford Unit forester. Fire season normally starts in mid-June when small wildland fires start breaking out. Advertisement But the fire southwest of Grants Pass surprised foresters enough Thursday to consider an early start despite hefty spring rains. "Once we start getting fires, we don’t have anybody to put on them," Thorpe said. "Southwest Oregon can’t afford another big fire season, so the best thing we can do is prevent them and keep them small." State foresters oversee wildland firefighting on all private, county, state and federal Bureau of Land Management lands here. The first official wildfire of the year was the Mooney fire, which crews contained early Thursday near Mooney Mountain six miles southwest of Grants Pass. Investigators said Thursday that exhaust from a woodcutter’s chainsaw ignited the fire. Burn patterns led investigators to a freshly cut stump covered with moss that apparently caught fire, said ODF’s Dennis Turco. Equally revealing during the investigation was how the fire burned, Thorpe said. Flames climbed as high as 7 feet tall and darted across areas of cleared vegetation that normally would act as a spring fire break. Flames even shot ahead of the fire line and created new small fires, a behavior called spotting. "I don’t think we were thinking nearly as seriously about it until we observed that fire behavior," Thorpe said. "It was wanting to get up and go." Foresters as recently as two weeks ago were postulating that an unseasonably wet April and early May could push the start of fire season into late June. "Every day it rained, we were cheering it on because that was one more day we didn’t have to worry about," Thorpe said. But Thorpe said spring rains usually do not add much moisture to the trees, fallen branches and other fire fuels that usually are a key factor in the depth and breadth of a wildfire. When fire season is declared, a ban on barrel burning begins and some restrictions are placed on open burning with permits. As the summer wears on, additional restrictions are enacted on everything from chainsaws and campfires to driving off-road and smoking in the woods in order to reduce the likelihood of fires. "We’d like people to be extra careful all the time, but we’re pretty thin in June," Thorpe said. The state forestry department’s firefighting budget is not secure yet, but plans are to hire almost 100 seasonal firefighters July 1, offering not only instant relief but a staffing level similar to last year, Thorpe said. The majority are veterans who could be certified in a day, he said. While wildfire talk is heating up in lowlands, it’s more relaxed for Forest Service officials who manage the higher-elevation lands. Though the Rogue River National Forest normally piggybacks its fire-season declaration on the state’s, visitors to federal lands likely won’t see the same types of restrictions any time soon. The Rogue River National Forest’s land is at higher elevations where cool and more moist conditions — even snow — likely mean "little or no public use restrictions for some time," said Phil Cardin, manager of the Interagency Fire Center at the Medford airport. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Rogue Valley Auto Finder Rogue Valley Job Finder --> Rogue Valley Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times