Klamath National Forest

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