Fremont-Winema National Forest Service News
The Fremont-Winema National Forest and the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership, along with partners and cooperators, thinned and underburned what might be a record amount of acres this spring and into early summer, dramatically reducing fire risk to communities in the wildland-urban interface, such as Chiloquin, Sprague River, Paisley, Bonanza, and Bly Mountain. Fire Managers intend to implement further treatments this fall and in 2025.
Daniel Foley, a new wildland firefighter assigned to Bly, tragically passed away on July 9th. Jacque Buchanan, Regional Forester for the Pacific Northwest Region, said, “Dan tragically passed away yesterday following a routine firefighter preparedness activity.
Words cannot express the depth of this loss. Losing even one life is a tragedy, and Dan’s passing, especially so soon after our Week of Remembrance for fallen firefighters, hits me hard. Dan was a first-year wildland firefighter, just 27 years old. He leaves a profound void within the wildland firefighter community and at the Bly Ranger District.”
Members of the Forest Leadership Team and other Forest staff had two opportunities recently to see new technology in action: Earth Force, a non-profit organization that uses vehicle-mounted LiDAR to measure distance, spacing, density, and basal diameter of trees while driving through a plot, and Burnbot, a bay-area corporation that provides fuel management services through the use of two types of robots; one which macerates vegetation while minimally impacting the soil and environment, and one which can create a ‘black line’ around an area by burning, then extinguishing, vegetation as it drives over.
This year, the Fremont-Winema and partners are seeing a bumper crop of Ponderosa pine cones in South-Central Oregon. As a result, Forest staff members are working with American Forests, the Oregon Department of Forestry, Patriot Restoration, and the International Conservation Foundation to organize the largest cone collection effort in which the Forest Service has been involved. With hundreds of thousands of acres burned on the Forest in the past five years, the need for seed is high; however, the Forest Service doesn’t have all the required personnel to harvest cones. Partners in the public and private sectors, working with the Forest Service, are acting as force multipliers to allow for a large, coordinated workforce, which should enable the effective collection of seeds to support the reforestation of burned areas.
Benjamin Wilson is the Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Forest Service.
