Fire and Aviation
KLAMATH HOTSHOTS!
Learn about our own Klamath
Interagency Hotshot Crew. Visit the crew's
homepage for indepth information about
the crew and their work....
FIRE
DANGER RATING AND CONTRACT ACTIVITY
LEVELS
For the most up-to-date fire danger levels and other
contract activity information, please follow
this link...>>>
WILDLAND FIRE USE
In accordance with the Wilderness Act
of 1964, the 227,000 acre Marble Mountains
and the 12,000 acre Russian Wildnerness
Areas were set aside as an area "...which
is protected and managed so as to preserve
its natural conditions and which generally
appears to have been affected primarily
by the forces of nature..."
FIRE MANAGEMENT PLAN
Klamath National Forest has a fire management
plan in place. For information
on this plan, please visit the Fire
Management Plan homepage.
Weather Intelligence
FIRE ECOLOGY
Since the beginning of time, fires have burned in the forest,
playing a vital role in keeping the land healthy. Fire reduces dead
vegetation, replenishes nutrients in the soil, stimulates new growth,
and maintains biological diversity. As civilization moved deeper
into the forest, fire came to be seen as an enemy that destroyed
lives, property and natural resources. As a result, the nation demanded
that the Forest Service exclude fire from our environment, and we
were mostly successful for decades.
Over time, it became apparent that our success had many unforeseen
consequences. Without fire, our forests became overcrowded and vulnerable
to attacks by insects and disease.
Today,
we know that fire is essential to the health of our forest. Since
conditions in many areas are conducive to large, severe wildland
fires, and because so many people now live in or near forests, we
need fires to burn in a more controlled way than is usually possible
when they are caused by naturally occurring events such as lightning
strikes. In order to restore fire to its natural role in the forest,
we ignite prescribed fires in the spring and fall when conditions
allow for slow, low intensity burning. Our forests need fire.
By igniting prescribed fires, we can maximize the chance that they
will burn on our terms with acceptable effects. Or, we can wait
until they burn on their own terms, with no control over the effects.
The choice is ours.
For additional information, please read
the article entitled "Influence
of Forest Structure on Wildfire Behavior
and the
Severity
of its Effects".
PRESCRIBED FIRES
On
the Klamath National Forest, public land managers have been trying
to reduce the risk of large, severe wildfires, improve wildlife
habitat, and achieve other natural resource objectives through the
use of prescribed fire for more than a decade.
Over the last 10 years, substantial progress has been made and
the number of acres treated annually with prescribed fire is increasing.
However, significant challenges have prevented land managers from
igniting prescribed fires on as many acres each year as they believe
are necessary. These challenges include weather, the time required
to complete prescribed fire plans, various government regulations,
litigation and appeals, and occasionally, the impacts of prescribed
fire on air quality.
The need to use prescribed fire, and
other tools, to reduce the risk of large,
severe wildland fires was driven home
by 2002 wildfire
season - the worst in recent history
with more than 6.5 million acres burned.
This
has certainly created a sense of urgency
that steps
must be taken to reduce unnaturally large
amounts of fuels, which feed the fires
in our National Forests.
The National Fire Plan The Departments
Agriculture and Interior developed an
interagency strategy, known as the "National
Fire Plan",
to respond to severe wildfires, to reduce
their impacts on rural communities,
and to assure sufficient firefighting
capacity in the
future. Reducing hazardous fuels, using
prescribed fire and other tools, is
one of the key components of the National
Fire Plan. The
U.S. Congress has increased funding to
the Forest Service to reduce hazardous
fuels on federal lands, with emphasis
on forests surrounding
communities to decease risk to people
and property.
USING
MECHANICAL & FIRE TREATMENTS
TOGETHER NEAR COMMUNITIES AT RISK
Fuel management and reduction must occur to implement the goals
of the National Fire Plan. Today, serious fire threats are
concentrated within fire-adapted ecosystems that historically evolved
from frequent, low-intensity fires. The Klamath National Forest,
along with private land owners, are working diligently to manage
fuels in these area. This effort is an integral part of our strategy
to reduce the occurrence of life and property threatening wildfires.
With the increased emphasis to protect Wildland Urban Interface
areas, we are using mechanical treatment methods in combination
with prescribed fire.
Prescribed fire alone as the first treatment is not always feasible
because of the current density of the forest. Ladder fuels, which
consists of dense vegetation near the forest floor and extending
up to the crowns of trees, predisposes some areas to severe wildland
fires, potentially leaving watersheds, species, and people at risk.
Both prescribed fire and mechanical methods are being integrated
to restore fire, which changes fire behavior making it safe for
the public and firefighters when homes must be protected in the
Wildland Urban Interface.
Mechanical treatments for fuel reduction projects are used in
two ways. In forested areas, trees are thinned to reduce density;
or in some cases, the lower limbs of trees are removed to reduce
the likelihood of fire reaching the crowns of the trees. The resulting
fuels from thinning are often piled and burned after sufficient
drying. In a dry forest vegetation type, such as Ponderosa Pine,
we underburn the thinned area following the mechanical treatments.
The Klamath National Forest uses a combination of mechanical treatment
to remove fuel, burning of piled limbs or branches, and area burning
(called underburning). While such efforts are labor intensive, they
are very effective in reducing the decadal fuel buildup while reducing
the risk of flame damage to both vegetation and surrounding communities.
For more information
on upcoming burns, please contact the
appropriate individual
from the following list:
Goosenest Ranger District
Contact Kit Jacoby, (530) 398-5725
Happy
Camp/Oak Knoll Ranger District
Contact Sue Daniels, (530) 493-1730
Salmon River Ranger
District
Contact Toby Herold, (530) 468-1288
Scott River Ranger District
Contact Debi Wright, 530 468 1264
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