Contributed by Nicole Strong, OSU Extension Forester, serving Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson Counties and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs We often talk about fire-adapted forests, but what exactly do we mean? Many people wonder what happens to the trees, plants, and wildlife during and after fires, both wildfire and prescribed burns. This article presents […]
A Public Service Announcement from the Central Oregon Fire Chiefs Association Legal fireworks have gone on sale just as Central Oregon is entering into an extended period of very hot and dry weather. Grasses, sagebrush and other fuels are rapidly drying, creating a high fire danger situation. Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties are currently under […]
“After 15 years of massive and severe blazes that have blackened landscape and choked the community with smoke for weeks at a time, severely disrupting people’s lives and the local… Read more Pete Caligiuri, Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project steering committee member and Forest Ecologist with the Nature Conservancy, joined our local morning show Business Break on […]
Why Prescribed Fire Matters: Healthier forests. Safer communities Contributed by Pete Caligiuri – Forest Ecologist, The Nature Conservancy, Bob Madden – Deputy Chief of Fire Operations, Bend Fire, and Deana […] Read more Ignitions planned south and west of Bend and outside Sisters If weather conditions remain favorable, the Deschutes National Forest has several prescribed […]
On November 7, 2017, the West Bend Project received the 2017 Forest Service’s Chief’s Honor Award, the highest award given by the Forest Service. The Chief’s Honor Award publicly recognizes outstanding accomplishments that contribute to the Forest Service’s strategic goals. The prestigious honor was given to the West Bend Project in the category of “Sustaining […]
Contributed by long time Bend resident, avid mountain biker and previous owner of Cog Wild, Melanie Fisher. A few years ago, I was invited to a meeting on Storm King Trail to discuss the West Bend thinning project. Along with many other local mountain bikers, we were concerned with how the forest thinning would affect our […]
“After 15 years of massive and severe blazes that have blackened landscape and choked the community with smoke for weeks at a time, severely disrupting people’s lives and the local […] Read more Pete Caligiuri, Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project steering committee member and Forest Ecologist with the Nature Conservancy, joined our local morning show Business Break […]
Experts agree that much of central Oregon’s federal forests are out of balance. Too many small trees crowd the landscape putting homes and property at risk from intense wildfires. But what to do about it? For decades, finding common ground on forest management has placed competing interests at loggerheads. But in central Oregon, a diverse […]
And finally, when it is time for controlled burning, dozens of prescribed fire professionals come in to plan and safely implement this critical element of the forest restoration process. Carefully planned forest restoration treatments like thinning, mowing, and prescribed burning make our community safer, our forests healthier and our water cleaner. We are working together […]
Contributed by Sara Gregory Fall is upon us in Central Oregon and for thousands of mule deer in our neighborhood, it will be time to move from the alpine areas where they’ve spent the summer to the lower elevation shrub-steppe and forests to the east. Deer use this migration strategy to avoid deep mountain snow […]
While the Sycan Marsh Preserve is in a different national forest, the lessons learned from the Bootleg Fire can provide insights into how fire might be impacted by forest treatments on the Deschutes National Forest as they do share the same forest types and historical fire regimes as well as similar soils and climatic conditions. […]
November 2017 In November 2017, The West Bend Project received the 2017 Forest Service’s Chief’s Honor Award, the highest award given by the Forest Service. “The Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project team hosted meetings, field trips, presentations and conducted a vast awareness campaign to get buy-in for this project while the employees of the Deschutes National […]
Once the initial forest restoration steps have been completed, and the forest is ready for prescribed fire, now it’s time to organize the many fire professionals and equipment needed to safely conduct a prescribed burn. The Burn Boss oversees all aspects of the prescribed fire, from writing the prescribed burn plan that describes every detail […]
We invite you to join the Northwest Fire Science Consortium, a Joint Fire Science Program Fire Science Exchange Network, for an informative webinar: Lessons from the Milli Fire The 2017 wildfire season impacted many forests and adjacent communities across the Western United States, leaving land managers, public officials and citizens with questions about how to […]
