April
7, 2016
Prescribe Burning Notice: Baker City Foothills Fuels
Reduction
The Whitman Ranger District is planning to begin
implementation of prescribed burning on the Foothills Fuels Reduction Project
within the next week. The Foothills Fuels Reduction project area contains
approximately 2,100 acres of prescribed fire units and is located between the
Baker City Watershed boundary and private land.
Smoke will
be highly visible from the Baker Valley. If a burn is forecasted to produce
smoke that will be a significant impact to a community or sensitive area it
will rescheduled until there is a more favorable weather forecast.
Prescribed fire is a major component of the Cohesive Wildfire
Strategy to meet the goals of restoring and maintaining resilient landscapes
and creating fire adapted communities. Prescribed
burning is done to reduce dead and down fuels, selectively thin understory
trees in dense forested stands, stimulate fire tolerant plant species, enhance
forage and browse, reduce the risk of large stand-replacement fires, create
strategic fuels breaks in the urban interface, and restore fire under
controlled conditions as a disturbance factor in these landscapes. Burning of
these units will reduce the threat form high severity high intensity wildfire
to both the municipal watershed and nearby private land.
Burning is part of the series of fuel reduction treatments
intended to decrease the damage done by wildfires, including reducing the
amount of smoke that typically impacts communities during the fire season. The intent is to keep smoke out of populated areas. Burning under controlled conditions reduces
surface and ladder fuels setting the stage to limit future high intensity
unplanned fires and the smoke that they would produce. Many areas are burned on
10 to 15 year rotations to limit fuels accumulations and enhance forage and
browse important to wildlife.
For questions concerning the prescribe burning
please contact: (541)523-6391.