Rattle Fire Road and Trail Closures Lifted
Incident: Rattle Wildland Fire
Released: 11/25/2008
The Umpqua National Forest has lifted all trail and road closures associated with the Rattle Fire near the Boulder Creek Wilderness. The closures went into effect in late August.
The 19,775-acre Rattle Fire is 100 percent controlled.
The public is reminded to use extreme caution while near burned areas. This includes watching for falling snags, trees, boulders and other dangers associated with a burned landscape. As hazardous trees fall, tree tops can break with downed limbs and branches accumulating on the ground and across roads or trails.
Rattle Fire began as a lightning strike on August 17th in the Boulder Creek Wilderness on the Umpqua National Forest. The fire burned 15,985 acres in the Wilderness where salvage, replanting or other vegetation management are not allowed.
Of the area burned outside of wilderness, 3,736 acres are in land allocations where salvage of burned trees is only appropriate to meet certain criteria such as restoring habitat or removing a safety hazard. The remaining 28 acres are located in Matrix allocation lands consisting primarily of younger forest stands less than 30 years old with little opportunity for salvage.
The Forest Service is working with Oregon Department of Transportation and PacifiCorp to actively treat danger trees and potential landslides, road failures, and erosion in and around the burned area. Workers will cut danger trees that threaten State Highway 138, Soda Springs Powerhouse, transmission and distribution power lines, forest roads, and recreational trails.
-=The End=-
