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51 °F 5 Day Forecast Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend October 26, 2003 BLM’s fall burning program put on hold By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Two intentionally set fires were snuffed out this week in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Medford District. But there was no need to investigate the cause: BLM employees started the test fires to determine whether they could begin the annual fall burning program. "We don’t have enough moisture yet," said district spokeswoman Karen Gillespie, noting the two fires in Josephine County were quickly extinguished when it became obvious the area was too dry. "We’ll need at least an inch-plus of rain to begin our fall burning," she added. "We may not be able to begin until mid-November." Advertisement However, she noted that is the normal time for fall burning to begin. It continues until the program is doused by winter storms. District officials plan to burn nearly 9,000 acres this fall, including 7,500 acres of handpiles and more than 1,200 acres of underburning in an effort to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires. Created from thinned forests, the handpiles are found throughout the 800,000-acre district. Underburning, which is also usually done in a thinned forest after the slash has been burned, is a low-intensity ground fire intended to replicate a natural burn. The fall burning is part of an effort by the district to reduce the fire hazard on more than 20,000 acres this fall and next spring, using both prescribed burning and manual and mechanical treatments. During the fiscal year that ended Sept. 31, district employees treated about 23,000 acres. Although the agency has been conducting fall burning for decades, the National Fire Plan approved by Congress following the devastating 2000 fire season prompted it to focus more of its burning on reducing fire threats in the rural interface. Fire experts say a century of suppressing wildfires in many areas has created woodlands that are unnaturally dense, creating the potential for catastrophic fires. The national plan identified 26 rural communities at risk in Southwest Oregon. Since then, the district’s program has reduced the threat around 23 communities, although all the work is not complete, officials said. In addition to non-commercial treatments, commercial treatments, primarily thinnings, are aimed at reducing fuel hazards on up to 8,000 acres each year to produce from 20 million to 30 million board feet of lumber. About 75 percent of the 7,500-acres scheduled for pile burning is non-commercial work adjacent to rural communities, Gillespie said. The remaining amount is thinning of over-stocked stands, she said. "The majority of our forest management projects is thinning overstocked stands to reduce fire hazard, and make the remaining trees more disease- and insect-resistant," she said. Roughly 75 percent of the funding for the fire management program this fiscal year, expected to be between $8 million and $9 million, will be contracted out to local residents, she said. That percentage matches the amount contracted out last year, she observed. "We expect to continue to work more and more with local communities to address the hazardous fuel conditions," she said. To protect air quality during the burning periods, the agency works closely with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the National Weather Service, the Oregon Department of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service. Prescribed burning is only allowed on days when conditions will allow the fire to burn safely while blowing the smoke away from populated areas. For a daily updated recording of prescribed burning on the Medford District or the Rogue River National Forest, call 618- 2354 or 800-267-3126. The recording, which is updated by 9 a.m. each day when burning occurs, also includes information on the current fire danger. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] 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 3 WEEKS FREE! 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