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The national database of state and local wildfire hazard mitigation programs
serves as a clearinghouse of information about nonfederal policies and
programs that seek to reduce the risk of loss of life and property through
the reduction of hazardous fuels on private lands. If
you would like to submit a program to the national wildfire programs database,
please complete the following form (MS
Word).
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Title: |
Upper Deschutes Basin Fire Learning Network Project � The Nature Conservancy
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Type: |
Education
Designation of high risk areas
Demonstration projects
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Jurisdiction: |
Multi-level
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State: |
Oregon
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Program Description: |
Background
The Upper Deschutes Basin is located in the East Cascades Mountain Range and the Columbia Plateau of Oregon. The Basin includes 2,032,640 acres stretching from the crest of the Cascades to the junction of the Deschutes and Metolius Rivers at the southern edge of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Seventy-one percent of the land is under federal of tribal management. Dramatic population growth has occurred in the wildland urban interface in Central Oregon, including the City of Bend. Well over 100,000 people live in Central Oregon, and hundreds of thousands visit annually. During the last decade, two major wildfires have taken over 40 homes and blackened thousands of acres of Central Oregon. Many of the homes are at extreme risk due to untreated wood shake roofs, poor egress, lack of adequate defensible space, poor water supply, and limited response resources. The problem of wildfire risk in Central Oregon has brought together many federal, state and local entities, working together to help people live with nature.
National Fire Plan Funded Community Assistance Projects within the Upper Deschutes Basin
Central Oregon has many active associations involved in defensible space public education, and fuels reductions activities. These groups all coordinate their activities, and are partners in Central Oregon Partnership for Wildfire Risk Reduction (COPWRR, see the COPWRR entry on this web site, or the COPWRR web site.) The same groups are cooperating partners in the Deschutes Basin Fire Learning Network (FLN) Project. The attached table shows NFP projects which are on-going in the Deschutes Basin area.
Landscape Goals
The Upper Deschutes Basin Fire Learning Network will:
- Communicate concepts describing ecosystems that are functioning within expected parameters and human communities that are a part of those ecosystems.
- Integrate efforts to design conditions that support "fire safe" communities while providing the appropriate mixture of habitat types and other resources; and
- Facilitate the formation of partnerships to make it all happen.
The primary goal of The Nature Conservancy's Fire Learning Network is to enhance biodiversity through ecosystem management, and to return fire, under controlled circumstances, to ecosystems in which fire plays a natural role.
FLN Project Objectives Relating to Fuels Treatments in WUI Areas
Fuels treatments to reduce wildfire risk in Wildland-Urban Interface areas is one objective which fits into the FLN goal of supporting "fire-safe" communities. FLN Project Objectives which relate to fuels treatment in WUI areas include:
- Integrate state and federal fuels treatment priorities by identifying mutual hazards, risks and potential for loss surrounding each of the "Communities at Risk".
- Develop a process that communicates comprehensive, interagency, science-based strategies for community protection for each community at risk in Central Oregon
- Develop interagency, multi-scale monitoring plans to measure the success of the wildland/urban interface fuels treatments, on a landscape scale.
Community Engagement and Public Education
FLN is assisting existing and planned community protection projects by highlighting their work and adding technical expertise. Some of these projects are:
Long Prairie: Located in northern Klamath County, this project is a partnership between the Walker Range Protection District, the BLM and the Deschutes National Forest and involves developing a community protection plan for 3 rural subdivisions.
Sisters Area: The Sisters District of the Deschutes National Forest has been engaged in an aggressive fuel reduction program along the Highway 20 corridor that involves several large rural subdivisions and resort areas. The Fire Learning Network is assisting the Sisters District in the development of a Powerpoint presentation to highlight the lessons learned from the fuel reduction efforts taken around Black Butte Ranch.
LaPine: Deschutes County Planning Department is coordinating the development of a new subdivision in the LaPine area that will be built with Firewise concepts integrated into both the subdivision infrastructure and home construction. New building and subdivision code regulations are being created for this subdivision.
Warm Springs: The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation have begun an aggressive fuels reduction program around isolated communities on the reservation. The Tribes will share with FLN their experience in this project.
The Oregon Department of Forestry has identified 18 Communities at Risk in the Upper Deschutes Basin. The Fire Learning Network will assist fuels reduction projects in these areas by developing a common database and mapping system which identifies their locations and status. A GIS database is under development that will identify past, current and future treatment projects by the Forest Service, Oregon Dept. of Forestry, and local fire departments and homeowner groups.
Contact Information
For more information, contact Garth Fuller via email at the Nature Conservancy, or call 541-388-3020.
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