BEND- Fire specialists plan to take advantage of unseasonably warm weather to complete Deschutes National Forest controlled burns Thursday and
Friday afternoon.
“We’re real fortunate to be able to safely burn this early,” said Bill Bickers, fuels technician with the federal Central Oregon Fire Management Service.
On Thursday at noon, Bickers, other fire specialists and Redmond Air Center smokejumpers began igniting brush and woody debris on 104 acres on the south side of Round Mountain, 10 miles northwest of La Pine.
Wildland fires regularly burn near the 5,900-foot mountain, Bickers said. “We average one large fire in this area every eight years, driving a real need to protect stands of mature trees and a lookout (tower),” he said.
Since 1985, large blazes in the area have included the Lookout Mountain, Four Corners and Crane Complex Fires.
Snowplows cleared roads so firefighting equipment could reach the area. But, fire specialists believe warm weather and low relative humidity
will allow the burn to consume brush and woody debris below the snowline.
On Friday, fire specialists plan to minimize fire threats to wildlife, mature stands of Ponderosa pine and sensitive soils by burning an additional 62 acres below the snowline on the south-facing slope of a butte located about 10 miles southeast of Bend.
They routinely conduct burns there in an area called the Fuzzy Units.
The latest series of burns began Monday and have consumed 146 acres. Burning should end this weekend when increasing clouds and a chance of
precipitation will make it difficult to reduce forest fuels.
Central Oregon prescribed burns are governed by Oregon Department of Forestry smoke management plan requirements, which restrict burning so smoke impacts to public health and visibility are minimized.
