Sean C. Morgan
Oregon Department of Forestry personnel intentionally started a fire around the Scott Mountain transmitter complex Thursday, July 7, to prevent uncontrolled fires from taking down the communications equipment.
“The idea is to let them burn and not put it out,” Forest Protection Supervisor Chad Calderwood told Sweet Home Unit firefighters and the fuels reduction crew before heading up to Scott Mountain. “It’s a little over an acre. It’s going to go quickly, I think.”
Cascade Timber Consulting brought a water tender to the site in case additional water was needed. Department of Forestry employees carved out a fire line around the site with a bulldozer. CTC also sprayed the grass so it was dry and ready to burn, while ODF crews cut, chipped and cleaned out other fuels in the area.
The transmitting facilities include a repeater for Linn County Sheriff’s Office, 9-1-1 and the ODF along, with many other radio users.
Northern Drive is about a mile south of the antennae, said Forest Protection Supervisor Jim Basting. The hill is mostly grass, and when it’s dried and cured, fire would move quickly uphill to the Scott Mountain antennae.
Burning the fuels around the complex before they dry naturally allows the fire crews to eliminate the potentially dangerous fuels with controlled fire.
“We can burn it on our terms,” said Unit Forester Ed Keith. “We can have our resources ready. We can choose the weather.”
The fact that the fuels around the grounds are still green helps control the fire too, he said, and the ODF can control the intensity by burning the fire down the hill.
A fire burning up the hill without the removal of these fuels would be intense and could easily overwhelm the facility, he said.
The grass is unlikely to grow back until the fall, Basting said, as long as the summer is dry. It’s a process the ODF will repeat annually to protect the transmitting equipment.
Fire activity has been low so far this year, Basting said. The district has had one fire on the lower Calapooia River, between Holley and Crawfordsville.
The fire was human-caused and located on a sandbar in the river. It burned approximately .1 acres.
The fuels crew, a federally funded five-man team, has been working every day to remove
fuels around homes and driveways in areas bordering local forests, Basting said. The program is in its third year.
For information about it and to find out how to access the program, call the ODF Sweet Home Unit at (541) 367-6108.
The Quartzville Corridor is now under regulated use, Basting said. The two big restrictions are on smoking and campfires.
Smoking is prohibited while traveling except in vehicles on improved roads, in boats on the water and on sand or gravel bars between water and high water marks that are free of vegetation.
Campfires are allowed only inside the metal rings along Quartzville.
Other limits include no chainsaws after 1 p.m., no motorized vehicles off road, no fireworks and no welding. ATVs are limited to roads with no grass strips. Vehicles also must carry a gallon of water or 2.5 pound fire extinguisher and a shovel with at least an 8-inch blade.
The regulations are in effect for about 27 miles along Quartzville Road from Highway 20.