Several lightning-caused fires in northeast Oregon’s North Fork of the John Day Wilderness are burning, and monitoring them rather than fighting them will save millions in taxpayer money. According to a story in the Pendleton East Oregonian, about 6,100 acres have burned in the 13,000-acre Wilderness in the last month, but Fire Staff Officer Brian Goff says the fires aren’t posing any threat.
Good point. Back when the USFS used to harvest a lot of timber, there was good reason to “protect the resources” of trees growing on National Forest System lands. A small fire on the east side of the Bitterroot Valley in Montana is being watched now, too — it’s not in the wilderness, but there’s no reason to put any resources on it just yet. It’s not threatening anything.
Goff said the wilderness fires in Oregon will likely creep steadily till fall rains and snow put them out. Bob Varner, the new district ranger for the North Fork John Day District based in Ukiah, had just arrived at his new post when the August lightning storm hit. He said his biggest worry with the fires was firefighter safety. “There is lots of tough terrain,” he said. “It is very, very steep with lots of snags and criss-crossed logs.” He said it took a hotshot crew 3 hours to walk just one mile in there. “If we back away, what would we lose?” He called in a long-term assessment team.
“We take the constraints they give us and write out a plan,” said Tim Rich, a fire analyst whose team assessed the wilderness complex. “They did not want fire on private land and they wanted to maintain wilderness characteristics as much as possible.”
Goff said he knows the monitoring strategy is saving taxpayers money, but he winces at the terms “hands-off approach” or “let-burn.” Monitoring the fire, he said, takes energy and attention. Current resources include two hand crews, eight overhead and two engine crews, along with aerial observers who fly the fire every day. “We know the weather is coming,” Varner said. “We’re hoping for a season-ending rain.” Maps of the fire are online at inciweb.org
