BEND, OR -- Oregon Department of Forestry declares the start of fire season Monday in its largest district. Ben Duda, with ODF's Central Oregon district, says the region's strong snowpack and late spring rain had an impact, "We’ve seen a slower start to fire season, honestly, this year. But we’re also seeing a lot of fuel growth; and by fuel I mean grasses and brush." He tells KBND News, "It doesn’t delay the onset of fire season, but it kind of spreads out the season for us." Duda says the fire risk is much higher at lower elevations, and spreads to higher elevation areas as snow melts and vegetation dries out.
"I anticipate a fairly active season," says Duda, "I think Northwest Prediction Center’s calling on an average season for us, at this point, which is still pretty significant for Oregon."
The Central Oregon district has already seen 16 fires this year. "People are thankfully feeling a lot of pressure to get some fuels treatments done around their homes and properties and unfortunately that’s led also to a few escaped debris burns, which continue to be our largest cause of human fires, particularly this time of year." In most cases people thought their burn piles were out, so they left it unattended. Duda encourages people who burned even a week ago, to check on their debris piles, "If the ash is white, it hasn’t gotten any water on it. Or, the water that was put on it has dried back out and warmed back up. So, things need to be stirred with water and checked with your hands before you consider them dead-out."
In other cases, the fires started with activities people didn’t think would cause a spark, "Crack sealing their paved driveways and things like that, using propane torches, and some weed burning and metal grinding or cutting. Just even the grass is a lot taller this year, so parking vehicles on tall grass is going to start being an issue as things dry out."
Three districts in southern Oregon entered fire season last week. ODF’s Jessica Neujahr encourages recreators to check fire restrictions before heading out, "There might be potentially some burn bans, they might need a permit for burning, it might have some campfire restrictions or anything like that. And that will continue throughout the summer, until fire season ends."
In addition to fire restrictions, the start of fire season brings full staffing at look-outs and detection camera systems, as well as full-time prevention patrols.
Lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and BLM elevated their fire danger to "Moderate" Friday.
