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Controlled Underburn Planned for Friday, February 20th (Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project News Release)
Release Date: Feb 19, 2015
Contact: Chris Chambers, Forest Division Chief, Ashland Fire and Rescue, (541) 890-8816
Expect to see a column of smoke above Ashland on Friday as the first controlled underburn of the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project (AFR) is undertaken. Underburning differs from the commonly seen pile burning where single brush piles are lit one by one. During an underburn, fire crews carefully apply fire to a designated area bordering a road or other fireline to hold the low flames. Underburns mimic the long-absent natural role of fire in our local ecosystem, consuming needles, leaves, and branches on the forest floor that would otherwise accumulate over time and potentially fuel a severe fire that could threaten the community and our municipal water supply. In the relatively mild controlled burning, large trees survive, and the fire serves to recycle nutrients for them. The Nature Conservancy has studied fire history in the Ashland Creek Watershed.
“Fire scars recorded by trees dating back to the 1300s show that fire burned our forests on an average of every 11 years and there was a fire somewhere in the watershed every other year,” according to Dr. Kerry Metlen, Forest Ecologist at The Nature Conservancy in Medford. “The lack of fire over the past 150 years has profoundly changed the types of trees we see and allowed the density of trees to roughly triple or more, making forests prone to severe fires,” added Metlen.
It has taken over four years to get forests to a condition suitable for safe and effective controlled burning for the intended benefits to nature and the surrounding community. The U.S. Forest Service received approval from air quality regulators due to forecasted favorable conditions that will move smoke away from Ashland and the Rogue Valley through the day and evening hours.
The following areas will be closed on Friday: White Rabbit Trailhead, White Rabbit Trail, Alice in Wonderland trail above Bandersnatch, Ashland Loop Road above the junction with Morton Street, Jabberwocky Trail and Caterpillar Trail.
Alternate trails include BTI, Bandersnatch, the Oredson-Todd Woods, lower Siskiyou Mountain Park, Hitt Road, and all trails in Ashland such as Lithia Park, TID, and Strawberry-Hald Park. The entire western portion of the watershed above Granite Street is open.
Updates on trails and roads are also posted at www.ashlandwatershed.org and www.facebook.com/AFR.Project.