Warmer, dryer weather this month made for good prescribed burning conditions this week. On Thursday, the Wallowa Mountains Office staff burned approximately 121 acres near the junction of Oregon Highway 3 and Forest Road 46 to reduce fuels - down trees and woody debris - on the national forest adjacent to private land.
The Starvation Ridge prescribed burn near Davis Creek also eliminated small diameter trees to encourage large trees to continue to grow and reduced the amount of ladder fuels, District Ranger Brian Anderson said.
Following several years of commercial harvest and thinning, the prescribed burn is the first started in the Lower Joseph Creek Restoration Project.
Anderson said the Forest plans to continue to use prescribed burning throughout the entire planning area with increasing scale and frequency.
"We hope to treat multiple burn units in the coming years and increase the size of those units to thousands of acres versus hundreds of acres," Anderson said. "Prescribed fire, combined with mechanical thinning treatments, is making a huge difference in restoring forest health and fire resilience across this landscape."
For more information on prescribed burning, wildfires and how to protect yourself, visit https://wallowacountyair.org