STEWARD S H IP
STEWARDSHIP PLAN SAVES PROPERTY FROM BOOTLEG FIRE
PRE-FIRE BY GENE ROGERS
T
he past two decades of wildland fires have intensified the political and scientific debate about wildfire spread and wildland fuels treatments. Do pre-fire treatments result in changes to the spread and intensity of wildfires? To really answer this question the details of fire behavior – weather, fuels and topography – must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The best fuels treatments can be negated by the worst fire-behavior conditions. One fact is clear: under similar conditions, a treated area will survive even moderate fire behavior when a similar area untreated may not. The South 40, affectionately named by its owners, is a 40-acre parcel of private forest land adjacent to FremontWinema National Forest land in southcentral Oregon; the parcel is in a dry Ponderosa pine forest historically prone to fire. The forest property and log cabin survived the Bootleg Fire of 2021. Previous 26
wildfire
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APRIL - JUNE 2022
fuels treatments enabled fire suppression personnel to be successful in the point protection of the cabin and adjacent forest stands. This fire burned out of control for nearly two months and for a time was the largest wildfire in the United States in 2021. The owners purchased the property in 1997. The assorted stumps on the property indicate three or four separate individual tree selection harvests, with the oldest stumps well-rotted. Slash piles are scattered throughout the property from the previous harvests. I confirmed harvest dates back to 1918 in the vicinity. In 2011, after contact with a local stewardship forester from the Oregon Department of Forestry, the owners became interested in developing a stewardship plan for their property. The stewardship forester explained the process and suggested some local The road into a 40-acre parcel of private forest land adjacent to Fremont-Winema National Forest land in southcentral Oregon is affectionately named The South 40, and is shown prior to fuels treatments. ALL PHOTOS BY GENE ROGERS
