Alex Paul
Several private timberlands surrounding Sweet Home have been closed by their owners and managers due to high fire danger.
As of Friday, private lands closed to recreationists include Cascade Timber Consulting, Willamette Industries, Weyerhaeuser, Seneca, Giustina and Frontier.
The closures came after the area has experienced eight weeks without significant rainfall, said Paul Bell, East Linn District Forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry.
“People need to check with individual landowners concerning procedures for entering their lands,” Bell said.
Bell noted the area fire hazard index hasn’t yet reached extreme, which would force a closure of all logging activities and require even landowners to have permits before entering the forest.
A major factor in forest land closures is the lack of available staffing and equipment due to the high number of fires raging across the west.
As of Friday, some 5,846,352 acres were in burn areas ranging from Alaska through California, the Great Basin of Idaho and Utah, Montana and into the Rocky Mountains.
The 10-year average acres is 2,609,042.
In Oregon, some 1,900 lightning strikes near the Oregon-Idaho border were reported in a 24-hour period August 24.
During that same day, some 15 new fires were reported in central Oregon. Most were single tree spot fires according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Acreage included in the local timberland closures includes more than 400,000 acres for Weyerhaeuser, 167,000 acres for Seneca Jones Timber Company and 610,000 acres for Willamette Industries.
Weyerhaeuser has initiated a hunter hotline. Call 541-741-5403.
Recreationists are required to have a permit before entering Giustina properties. Call 541-485-1500.
Cascade Timber Consulting is asking the public to not call asking for permits, saying the company will announce when its closure has been lifted.
“We really didn’t want to close our lands just prior to the start of bow hunting season,” said Jim James, general manager of western timber and logging for Willamette Industries. “The many hunters who use our land will be very disappointed. But fire danger is extremely high and there is very little fire fighting capability left in Oregon. We have to be prudent and not take any further risks.”
Wednesday, the Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group announced hunting season would continue as usual, although the issue could be revisited if weather conditions warrant at a later date.
The local Linn Forest Protective Association summer fire team is home and in place, Bell said.
“We’ve been told to have people ready in case some of the other fires grow,” Bell said. “We use primarily contractors for equipment in addition to our regular fire crews. But these resources are not available to us due to the high demand in other areas.”
Bell said the Sweet Home area hasn’t experience long periods of high temperatures and the humidity level has remained fairly high.
“If we get a long period of dry east wind, conditions could change quickly,” said Lee Vaughn, assistant forester.
The Sweet Home Volunteer Fire Department, its rural sites and the ODF are working cooperatively on any type of fire that might pose a hazard to grasslands or timber, Bell said.
Last week the agencies extinguished a blaze on Clark Mill that had crawled up an embankment and a field fire on Berlin Road that was started by an electric fence.
“So far, all the fires have been very small,” Bell said. “That’s because we’ve been able to hit them quickly and hard.”
Area logging companies are working under a Level III industrial fire precaution.