Forest fires: history can tell us a lot if we just listen and learn

 

by JOHN ROSS/for The Herald  —  Like essentially everything else, forest fires just aren’t what they used to be. And considering the latest tree-ring data, it’s clear they never were.

The whole idea of 400-year burn cycles or even 100-year cycles has been refuted. Southern Willamette Forest Collaborative Director Sarah Altemus-Pope, explained by summarizing tree-ring evidence presented at a pair of Collaborative partnership programs concluded last Thursday.

Tree ring samples speak volumes

Five years of painstakingly-gathered and preserved tree-ring samples were interpreted by a team of Oregon State University Forestry specialists under Dr. James Johnston. These samples reveal that the fire cycles essential to establish present-day old growth Douglas Fir forests may have been as short as 5 to 15 years. It’s all about the timing and intensity of fire outbreaks.

Back in the day, certainly, up to a century and a half ago, people saw fires as a nuisance to just be snuffed out and the quicker the better. Before then, evidence suggests that First Nations or indigenous people set fires—just as they did for clearing and maintaining prairies in the Willamette Valley to support their livelihood staples of Oregon white oak mast Camas root—prepared in underground slow cookers over days.

Control forest burns or they will control us

Currently, however, as underscored in ominous, bold, black lines, the undeniable evidence sends a stark, blunt message: We either learn to constructively deploy fire to manage forests or rampaging fire will manage forests uncontrollably and catastrophically. They burn it all down—one watershed after another, just like in the Umpqua watershed, according to forest managers there.

“Fire is part of this landscape,” Altemus-Pope proclaimed, “and it’s been here for a long time. This is not the fires we used to see. What’s not the same is how forests are overstocked.”

Pointing to Johnston’s research and established local history, she noted “We’ve been suppressing fire for over 130 years—even before the Forest Service.” Early on, European settlers outlawed indigenous people’s burn practices and eventually herded them onto distant reservations. Cattle grazing (here it was sheep grazing) became the norm with land was cleared and trees harvested as needed. “Our forests then were much more open, but after that—especially after 1910 when Dead Mountain burned and part of the town as well—fire suppression became the focus.

Work needed done at several levels to establish a starting point

“I think timber and logging was a piece of it, but even before that, people didn’t want (fires),” she recounted. “So, I think, part of the solution is—like James said—’pyro diversity’ (his made-up word) with different types of fires and prescribed fires.”

However before that becomes even possible, she maintained, “we’re going to have to go out there and do mechanical harvesting to reduce the trees per acre so we can get (controlled) fire back on the landscape.” She mentioned a recent Oakridge-Westfir Thinning and Fuels Redution project intended to thin understory growth as well as open up the upper canopy and break up the contiguous upper vegetation that supports destructive mega fires that leave mostly-charred landscapes.

“That was very intentional,” she explained. “It is really important that intentional fires follow, or you have little trees growing over the slash underneath, including a lot of dead and downed material.”

And while smoke is never desirable, the trick is choosing when it’s more manageable and produces intended rather than catastrophic results—including the potential to decimate established communities. “We’ve got to find a way to do these prescribed fire projects and limit smoke to our shoulder seasons to have less risk in the summer.”

Community buy-in is an important part

At that point, the historical pattern of irregular, strong easterly winds is less problematic.  Meanwhile, residents will need to continue with the Collaborative’s initiatives to create fire-adapted local communities similar to as Bend and Ashland. Community engagement and enthusiasm is essential because agencies like the Forest Service are less attracted to help communities that show little signs of helping themselves.

She does credit Oakridge with becoming a more “fire-wise” community, by preparing homes and properties to resist runaway conflagration like the one that decimated the McKenzie valley visibly just over the northern ridgetops three summer ago. “I think we are closer to being a fire-adapted community and do have community support. We are fire wise, but not fire adapted yet.”

Work to be done includes improving evacuation planning, following through on public health projects to protect smoke-sensitive members with individual home air filters, and more clean-air centers, in addition to modernizing home insulation, heating and outdated wood stoves.

Last Thursday’s session opened with abundant, graphic details on the extent of damage caused by the last two seasons of nearby fires as well as pathways and prospects for eventually restoring forest health as well as public access.

Recent fire activity not as hot as expected signals quicker recovery

Altemus-Pope summarized a drilled-down analysis of the Cedar Creek fire, in particular, as personally reassuring.

“I didn’t know and I was relieved to find that only 20 percent of the area experienced really high-intensity fire,” she admitted. Very few people have been allowed into the areas because of obvious risks. But based on the unprecedented smoke pollution levels she had feared for the worst.

Salmon Creek and Waldo Lake should recover in relatively short order after some cloudiness from siltation, she shared, but not as impactfully as the smoke and fires would proportionally imply. “There will be increased sediment flow for a couple of seasons, but not a heavy debris flow.”

Forest service roads and highways will be variably impacted with some potentially closed for the foreseeable future.

Citizen input on road restoration critically needed

Middle Fork District Ranger Molly Juillerat presented detailed information on a proposal to fund an environmental assessment and eventual restoration of 90 miles of affected roads within the Cedar Creek and Gales fires footprints. She invited public input on:

• Which roads are most important and why?
• What criteria should be used to decide which roads need more or less intervention by way of natural and structural recovery as well as bridges, culverts and the like?
• Which effects of various proposed recovery activities for natural and cultural resources, including roadside logging, deserve closest and most careful attention and possible modification?

Feedback to District’s website or mail by December 19

Juillerat disclosed a rapidly-closing deadline of December 19^th for public input. People attending were invited to fill out cards with their concerns at the meeting or to feed back on the District’s web page at: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=63158

Alternatively, she also requested that mailed comments should be addressed as: Attn: Cedar-Gales Roadside Risk Reduction, 46375 Highway 58, Westfir, OR 97492.