Forest Service works on land projects
<p>Jake Bauer looks for the next tree to cut down during a fuel operation by the Forest Service.</p>
MINERAL COUNTY – While the Forest Service waits for the next fire to fight in Mineral County, they have been staying busy working on a variety of projects that look to the future of forest management.
Between on call duty and deployment to fires burning in Oregon and Washington, local Forest Service staff have been spreading out across the county to make sure areas of land are prepared for prescribed burns to take place years from now.
Crews of chainsaw wielding personnel deploy to designated areas to remove fuels and down trees that will eventually burn in order to restore the forest to its proper density and composition.
Forest Service Assistant Fire Management Officer of Fuels Lorie Cotter said the work often goes unnoticed but is critical to maintaining a viable ecosystem and prevent future fires from having enough fuel to potentially get out of control. Cotter said the work removes a species of tree that can inhibit the growth of preferred species.
“We have a lot of Douglas Fir encroachment,” Cotter said. “We have excluded fire from the landscape for so long that the Douglas Fir trees are so thick they sometimes inhibit the prescribed fire. So we go in and cut down the smaller Doug Fir and that allows the (prescribed) fire to accomplish the goals that we want.”
Cotter said the crew works a site that will be burned potentially a few years from now. She said the forward thinking strategy of the Forest Service is intended to prevent a situation where an unintended forest fire could have the potential to burn unimpeded and also bring back a natural element to the forest.
“The purpose of a prescribed burn is to return fire to an ecosystem that usually has fire in it,” Cotter said. “It flushes the area out. It’s really good for the brush in the area. It doesn’t kill it. It allows it to come back even stronger. The deer and elk love it. It’s forage for them and it improves their habitat.”
Approximately 10 Forest Service personnel made their way up a road off Highway 90 on Wednesday to cut down young Douglas Fir and prep the site for a future burn. The work involved working their way in a zig-zag pattern up the mountain side, cutting trees along the way and avoiding the occasional downing of trees by a fellow worker.
Cotter said, while the work isn’t the highly visible job of fighting fires, it is an important part of what Forest Service personnel in Mineral County do when there isn’t a fire to fight.
“These guys work extremely hard,” Cotter said. “When we aren’t doing initial attack, we do project work. Probably 90 percent of the project work is preparing for prescribed burns. We have a strong burn program.”
A few of the personnel on the site Wednesday said the conditions were hot and dry but the work needed to be done. The staff said, while they wait for a fire to fight somewhere in the county, the work of making sure sites are prepped for future burns continues. Jake Bauer said removing the non-desirable species of tree was the primary objective.
“We were up there removing the Doug Fir,” Bauer said. “We do it to bring that stand of timber back to where it originally was. We want it more open, less congested and not so nasty looking.”
Matt Campbell of the Forest Service said the conditions at the site were favorable for fire growth.
The crew was actually pulled off the site early on Wednesday because with weather moving in with the potential for lightning, officials wanted their staff ready to respond to an actual fire.
“It was hot and dry up there today,” Campbell said. “It slows you down a little bit. You just go at your own pace. We got pulled off a little early because of some smoke reports. I enjoy the work. You have to love being outdoors if you’re going to work for the Forest Service.”
One of the crew members was working her first season with the Forest Service. Rookie Hillary Stevens said because the season was off to a relatively slow start, she has been manning a chainsaw in the woods a number of times so far this season.
“It’s definitely different from what I’m used to,” Stevens said. “It’s been slow so we’ve been out doing this quite a few times. It’s good to get out of my comfort zone and do new things. It’s been fun so far.”