BEND, OR -- City Club of Central Oregon hosts a public discussion this week about the decisions made by land managers once a wildfire breaks out. Executive Director Kim Gammond says she hears a lot of confusion about the tactical decisions made by firefighters and land managers, because many people don’t realize every situation is different. "There was a lot of discussion about why, even out there in the wilderness, they weren’t bringing the 737 full of water and dropping it on that. Especially with people who may not have grown up around wildfire, just kind of a lack of understanding that every single fire is different," Gammond tells KBND News. "So, if it starts on county lands, right outside a city, the type of response the agencies are going to have to that, versus the type of response they’re going to have out in the Three Sisters Wilderness," says Gammond, "And, the types of resources they’re going to bring or not bring, when they’re going to let something burn, when you’re going to see every resource available across the northwest show up."

She wants to take a comprehensive look at those decisions, "Where it starts is going to be different, how it starts is going to cause a different type of treatment plan, and that you can’t expect the same types of responses on every single land type. There’s both financial and ecological reasons that decisions are made differently."

Thursday's City Club of Central Oregon meeting includes, "Representatives from Deschutes County, the U.S. Forest Service, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Bureau of Land Management and Oregon Department of Forestry will all be there," says Gammond, "It’ll really be a panel discussion between all these representatives. Hearing them build conversation on each other about different wildfires they’ve responded to, different things they’ve seen, how funding’s changing, how technology’s changing."

City Club’s “How Wildfire Decisions are Made” forum is Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bend. Click HERE for more information and to pre-register.

To listen to our full conversation with Kim Gammond, visit our Podcast Page.