Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Thursday, June 15, is the end of burn season.
Rain or shine, the burn ban goes into effect Friday, Jim Basting of the Oregon Department of Forestry said. The ban on open burning of yard waste remains in effect until Oct. 1 or until the fire chiefs and ODF agree that significant fire danger has ended.
Recent rainy weather has kept the number of fires in the area to a minimum. Last month, a windy dry spell brought several fires from burn piles that got out of control.
In spite of the recent rains, fire danger is increasing, according to ODF Unit Forester Kevin Crowell.
“We went through a dry spell in the spring, and since then things have moistened up,” he said, “but the grasses are curing up now as summer conditions set in.”
In the last couple of weeks, ODF Sweet Home Unit has responded to one fire, a lightning strike that affected one tree in the Rumbaugh Creek area, east of Green Peter.
“I suspect as soon as it dries out, (fire season) will come really fast,” Basting said. North Butte, visible to the north from Foster Dam, had already turned brown during the May dry spell.
“We’ve had a lot of rain, and all the rest of the grass greened up and grew like crazy,” Basting said.
Windy dry weather will present a danger when the tall grass dries out, but the tall grass is no more a problem than dry years when vegetation does not grow wildly. In dry years, the grass is short, but the dry season is longer, he said.
“Either is a concern on a hot, windy day.”
Officials are expecting an average summer in terms of fire danger, Crowell said.
“It comes every year,” Crowell said. The only questions are the duration of the season and how bad it will be, and those can’t quite be answered at this point in the year.
Sweet Home Unit firefighters have been coming on duty over the last month. Two more went to work on Monday, and the rest will go to work on June 19.
Total, the unit will have 10 firefighters and one lookout on its fire crew this year.
In preparation for fire season, firefighters, rookies and veterans from all over the state, will come to Sweet Home for training.
Fire school will run June 26-30 at Sweet Home High School ending with live fire exercises in the Ames Creek drainage. About 200 people will attend, including students and teachers.
Firefighting resources get stretched thin during fire season, Crowell said, and the annual burning ban alleviates the added burden of escaped fires from homeowners burning yard waste. The ordinance has reduced escaped debris burns in the county by roughly half since it was instituted 14 years ago.