Forest officials want to thin Oregon acreage

By The Associated Press

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BEND, Ore. — Forest Service officials want to thin fuels on about 75,000 acres of national forest land in central Oregon in an attempt to reduce wildfires this year.

That is a significant increase over the roughly 50,350 acres treated in 2003, said Leslie Weldon, supervisor for the Deschutes National Forest.

The increase comes in the wake of two fire seasons that burned hundreds of thousands of acres in Central Oregon in 2002 and 2003. It also follows the passage of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003.

Signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 3, the act aims to speed up logging and other fuel-reduction projects on federal lands. The law also authorizes an additional $20 million to be split among forests throughout the nation to pay for those projects.

Weldon said it is premature to say exactly where the top-priority areas will be. According to data compiled by Central Oregon Fire Management Services, there are 136 communities at risk in Oregon. That means they exist in what's called the urban-wildland interface, the area where residences and communities touch the forest boundary.

Weldon said the strategy won't provide a specific list. Rather, it would estimate the likelihood that a fire would start, consider the population near the area and consider how much it would cost to thin the forest.

Officials estimate the likelihood that a fire would start by measuring the density of trees and brush, how dry the wood is and also by using historic data about how recently a fire burned through the area.

"Our strategy won't be saying that one area is more important than another," she said. "It will address how we are going to deal with the fire risk."

Agency officials also will be working with communities to draft specific plans for dealing with fire in their zone, she said.

Costs of the thinning work vary from $50 to $200 per acre, depending on whether the treatment is mowing, small-diameter thinning, prescribed burning or commercial thinning, Weldon said.

But those costs don't include the planning or administrative costs associated with the projects. Weldon said the strategy that would result would direct officials on where to do the work over the next five years.

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