La Grande, OR- Although
parts of northeast Oregon still appear green and damp, fire activity has begun
to pick up around the region. This
increase in fire activity has prompted Oregon Department of Forestry to declare
fire season across the Northeast Oregon District. “Normal summer weather is forecast for the
foreseeable future. These conditions,
paired with rising fire danger have driven us to declare fire season.” Joe Hessel, District Forester said.
FIRE SEASON will begin
at 12:01 a.m., Monday, June 17 for forest and range lands protected by ODF
Northeast Oregon District. “It won’t
take much dry and breezy weather to cure out our fine fuels. Declaring fire season enables us to help
prevent human caused fires, which can be problematic throughout the summer.” Said Hessel. The fire season declaration places fire
prevention restrictions on landowners and public. Additionally, fire prevention regulations on
industrial logging and forest management activities are put into place. Lands affected include private, state,
county, municipal, and tribal lands in Union, Baker, Wallowa, and Umatilla
counties along with small portions of Malheur, Morrow and Grant counties within
the Northeast Oregon Forest Protection District. This area encompasses approximately 2 million
protected acres.
Hessel states “Early in
the fire season, it’s easy to underestimate what level the fire danger really
is. We really want to encourage folks to
make sure they are getting out regularly and checking any place where slash or
debris piles were burned late last winter and this spring. Those areas can hold heat for a long time and
cause fires to rekindle months later.”
Significant wildfires have been caused by these holdover fires from
burning that occurred prior to official fire season.
During
Fire Season:
·
Burn
Permits for burn barrels and all open burning except camp fires are required on
all private forest and range lands within the Northeast Forest Protection
District of the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF). Contact your local ODF office in La Grande,
Baker City, Wallowa, or Pendleton to acquire a Burn Permit.
·
Logging
and other industrial operations must meet requirements for fire prevention,
such as fire tools, water supply, and watchman service when those operations
are occurring on lands protected by ODF.
Contact your local Stewardship Forester at any ODF office for more
information.
·
Campfires
must be DEAD OUT! Recreationists are
reminded that campfires need to be attended and fully extinguished before being
left. Get permission from the landowner prior
to starting a campfire.
For further
information, contact the Oregon Department of Forestry at these local offices:
La Grande Unit (541) 963-3168
Wallowa Unit (541) 886-2881
Pendleton Unit (541) 276-3491
To report a
fire, dial 9-1-1.
For
information on the weekends call:
Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center (541) 963-7171
Make sure you know what
the fire restrictions are before you head out.
Check with your local Forest Service office for fire regulations on
National Forest land, or BLM office for lands managed by the Bureau of Land
Management. Information on Public-Use
Restrictions on the Oregon Department of Forestry, Umatilla National Forest and
Wallowa Whitman National Forest can be found at http://bmidc.org/index.shtml under
Current Information: Fire Restrictions.
http://bluemountainfireinfo.blogspot.com/
is your
spot for current fire information in the Blue Mountains.
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