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Title: |
Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council - COPWRR
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Type: |
Community Planning
Education
Fuelbreaks
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Jurisdiction: |
Multi-level
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State: |
Oregon
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Program Description: |
COPWRR
The Central Oregon Partnerships for Wildfire Risk Reduction (COPWRR, pronounced "co-power"), is a project of the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council. The purpose of the COPWRR project is to develop a strategy to implement ecologically sustainable, economically viable, market-driven methods to remove hazardous fuel and utilize non-sawtimber biomass from Central Oregon's public and private lands. The focus of this strategy is to develop the partnerships necessary to remove hazardous fuel and cultivate markets using non-saw-timber biomass.
COPWRR maintains a website, where up-to-date information on the project, its goals, activities and workshops, and research documents, can be found. While the ultimate goal of the COPWRR project is economic utilization of biomass products, a secondary focus is the reduction of hazardous fuels particularly in WUI areas. The COPWRR area includes all of Jefferson, Deschutes and Crook counties.
Management Objectives
The COPWRR area is a diverse landscape with a variety of forest types including: juniper, lodgpole pine, subalpine and alpine forests of the Cascades on the western side; grasslands of sage, bitterbrush, and juniper savannah on the southern side; farm land on the northern side; and juniper and ponderosa forest in the northeast. No single management solution can be used to reduce the threat of wildfire in the entire area. Additionally, there are 23 at-risk wildland-urban interface communities within the COPWRR region, including Bend, Oregon.
The recommended management objective of the COPWRR task force is:
1) Recognizing that wildfire is a natural part of the Central Oregon environment, the overall objective of fire management in Central Oregon should be to manage wildfire rather than exclude it from all areas across the landscape. This management will include the exclusion of wildfire in certain areas (e.g. adjacent to communities);
2) In areas where people and property would be put at risk if fire were to ignite, or where fuels have accumulated to the extent that prescribed burns or other ignitions cannot be controlled and would pose the risk of catastrophic wildfire, the fire management objective should be to substitute fire with preventive techniques such as mowing and thinning;
3) In the remaining areas, the underlying fire management objective should be to restore fire-adapted ecosystems to the point where: a) natural fire may be allowed to burn; or b) prescribed burns may be safely utilized.
Wildland-Urban Interface Areas
In WUI areas a phased zone approach is recommended. The phased zone works outward from the residential area creating a buffer zone of treated lands which would average one and one half miles wide across the region. The recommended vegetation management strategies are as follows:
- WUI-Within rural subdivisions, and on private residential parcels, treat fuels according to Firewise or Fire Free specifications. Use fire-resistant street trees.
- Zone 1- Overall Management Objectives: Community Fire Protection. Replace fire with proactive management. Very little surface fuels, no ladder fuels, wide crown spacing. Creation of a safe fuel break for fire fighters.
- Treatment Methods: Aggressive thinning of trees, no diameter limit. Mowing of brush. Very limited prescribed fire, if any.
- Width: Dependent upon wildfire risk factors such as slope, species, prevailing winds, etc.
- Zone 2-Overall Management Objectives: Community Fire Protection, Recreation, Ecosystem Health. Replace fire with proactive management. Crown fire drops to a surface fire.
- Treatment Methods: Thinning of trees, prescribed fire, mowing.
- Width: Dependent upon wildfire risk factors such as slope, species, prevailing winds, etc.
- Zone 3-Overall Management Objectives: Full suite-Community Fire Protection, Ecosystem Health, Recreation, Habitat. Some crowning in areas such as leave patches possible. (Leave patches are islands of natural vegetation in a treated area). Wildfire burning into this zone slows down.
- Treatment Methods: Thinning, prescribed burns. Mowing if necessary.
- Width: Dependent upon wildfire risk factors such as slope, species, prevailing winds, etc.
COPWRR plans to map all WUI and buffer areas, determining the zone widths based on wildfire risk factors. Limited treatment resources will be directed first to Zone 1, then Zone 2, then Zone 3. Precise prescriptions for each Zone should be developed on a site-specific basis, but following the Management Objectives described above.
Public Education
While only 17% of the COPWRR land is in WUI or buffer zones around communities, population in the area has been growing rapidly as it has become a resort area, desired for its natural resources. The task force realizes that fuel treatments need to be explained to the public as both a forest restoration practice and a public safety practice, so as not to face opposition. An important goal for the COPWRR project is to deliver public information sessions and targeted training sessions on fire ecology and wildfire risks, forest restoration, contracting opportunities, and the COPWRR project. In 2002, workshops were held to commemorate National Fire Plan Partners Week, April 29-May 2. These were a series of presentations on wildfire and resource management, forest restoration, fire ecology, the National Fire Plan, and utilizing small diameter material in the local economy. On May 3 and 4, a workshop was held to provide information on how to successfully compete for work in forest restoration, and how to monitor and evaluate these projects. And on September 9, a field trip visited the site of the Cache Mountain Fire, including Black Butte Ranch. Participants viewed treated areas and resulting fire behavior; discussed fuel treatment activities, costs and suppression activities, and discussed efforts to reduce wildfire risks in Central Oregon.
Contact Information
For more information, contact Scott Aycock via email or call Scott at 541-548-9525.
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