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Ochoco and Deschutes National Forests and Prineville District, Bureau of Land Management Office of Communications Working as One to Serve Central Oregon
For Immediate Release Contacts:
April 21, 2003
Roland Giller, USFS (541) 383-5653
Perrin Damon, ODOC (503) 945-0925
Inmate Crews Return to Build Defensible Space
in Central Oregon Forests
For the fifth consecutive year, inmates from the Oregon Department of Corrections will work with the U.S. Forest Service to restore forest health and reduce fire hazard on national forest lands in Central Oregon. Their work treating excess forest fuels over the past four years proved instrumental in helping contain the Cache Mountain Fire when it threatened Black Butte Ranch and the Metolius Basin last summer. Because of the moderate snow pack in the Cascades this spring, the “Deschutes Conservation Camp” will begin operation in the Deschutes National Forest two weeks early this year on April 28, 2003.
The camp, with 24-hour security, is located in the forest in order to avoid costly transportation of inmates to and from work sites on a daily basis. The camp will accommodate 100 inmates supervised by Department of Corrections staff. Only minimum-custody inmates are eligible to participate in the Deschutes Conservation Camp. Those selected for this assignment are within three years of completing their prison terms, have had acceptable behavior while incarcerated, and are supervised by correctional officers at all times. Ten-man work crews are deployed six days a week under the technical direction of U.S. Forest Service employees.
“Last year the Deschutes Conservation Camp received both regional and national recognition. This was because it not only reduced hazardous fuels on National Forest lands, but also provided a meaningful training experience for the inmates,” said Leslie Weldon, Deschutes National Forest Supervisor. “Inmates serving at the camp learn critical outdoor working skills that help them maintain gainful employment when they leave prison. With this training, they can more easily find and, importantly, retain jobs in fields such as landscaping, nursery work and forestry.”
The 2003 Deschutes Conservation Camp will focus on three major priorities for restoration on national forest lands in Central Oregon:
• Protecting homes and communities (Sisters, Camp Sherman, Crescent and LaPine);
• Protecting accessible municipal water supplies (Bend watershed); and
• Protecting threatened and endangered species habitat (work will be done in campgrounds to help prevent potential fires from spreading into adjacent owl and lynx habitat).
“Each year over the past five years we have increased the quality and quantity of our work. The first year we treated over 2,200 acres. Last year the crews, working for two additional weeks, hand piled more than 5,000 acres of hazardous fuels, reducing the risk to communities throughout Central Oregon,” said DOC Captain Jeff Forbes, the camp commander. “We have proven that setting clear goals for productivity and achieving or surpassing those goals creates high morale and a safer, more-productive inmate workforce.”
“Together with the Forest Service and local communities, we have created a national model in Central Oregon,” said DOC Interim Director Ben de Haan . “This project shows the power of partnerships among all levels of government – from local to national – to accomplish important work that might otherwise have gone undone.
“Additionally, the project supports the state’s goal to teach inmates valuable work skills,” Dr. de Haan added.
In 2003, the total value of the work accomplished by the inmates in this training program was estimated to be more than $1.7 million, with a U.S. Forest Service investment of $560,000. The dollars saved were used to support Oregon Department of Forestry and contract fire crews’ efforts in fire suppression and additional hazard reduction work.
Over the past four summers, inmates:
• hand-piled over 13,000 acres of hazardous fuels in the wildland-urban interface surrounding the communities of Sisters, Black Butte, Pringle Falls, Crescent, Sunriver and LaPine;
• created defensible spaces from wildfire around homes;
• completed more than four miles of fire line construction;
• pulled noxious weeds on 700 acres;
• completed mulch mat maintenance on 700 acres;
• maintained ten miles of recreation trails;
• repaired the trail to Black Butte Lookout; and
• restored horse corrals and campsites near Crescent Lake.
Oregon’s minimum-custody inmates have a long tradition of fighting fires and supporting fire camps. This summer, because many National Guard troops, who are traditionally used as emergency fire fighters when wildfires reach crisis proportions, are in the Middle East, the Oregon Department of Forestry will also train Deschutes Conservation Camp inmates as emergency wild land fire fighters. “Regular agency and contract fire crews will be called out first in case of fire, but when these resources are stretched thin or non-existent, we can then draw upon these trained inmate firefighting crews to help us out,” said John Jackson from the Prineville office of the Oregon Department of Forestry. “Another plus — this training will also provide him with a key fire fighting training certificate and skills that he can use after release from prison to seek employment with our many highly qualified contract fire crews.”
The mobile work camp recently received two prestigious awards. Last year a “Caring for the Land Award” was given to the Oregon Department of Corrections, the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Deschutes National Forest. Last July the Deschutes Conservation Camp received a special Honor Award from the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior for maintaining and enhancing the nation’s natural resources and environment.
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Note to Editors and News Directors: If you are interested in visiting the Deschutes Conservation Camp, please call either contact person and we'll arrange a visit to the camp and to the crews at their worksites.
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