After last year's Labor Day fires, many Oregonians are dreading wildfire season. But there are resources to help people prepare.
Amanda Rau is the fire specialist with Oregon State University Lane County Extension. She started her job just about a month after the Labor Day fires.
“That meant that my job, which was originally intended to be one that involved preparing people for fires like this, I jumped right into helping folks with recovery,” Rau said.
Firefighters are going to make decisions about whether or not to try to save your home based on what you've done in advance to prepare.
Rau visited affected communities and taught a webinar on how to identify hazard trees. It was only after several months that she was able to pivot to preparedness. That includes teaching about prescribed fire.
“And there is a direct relationship between the good fire on the land and the kind of fire that causes devastation and trauma,” Rau said. “And wanting to shift that dynamic to get more of the kind of fire that benefits people back on the landscape to kind of replace some of that more intense catastrophic fire.”
Prescribed fire isn’t new. The Kalapuya people native to the Willamette Valley used it to manage the landscape. It can benefit plant life and help prevent the types of intense fires seen in 2020. Rau said prescribed fires require a lot of preparation. And you want to make sure it doesn’t get out of control.
“That’s probably number one in terms of prescribed fire is keeping it in the box,” Rau said. “But then there’s also the proper application to get the benefits that you want. To maybe maintain your overstory but clean up underneath the trees or perhaps deal with some blackberry or overgrown shrubs that need some tending.”
Rau said prescribed burning is becoming more widely accepted as a way to manage for prevention of wildfire. She also helps homeowners with building defensible space around their property—like mowing. And how to make sure the home itself is hardened against fire sparks.
“And better to bet on preparation and planning in advance and setting yourself up for success as well as setting up those who are responding for success,” Said Rau. “Because firefighters are going to make decisions about whether or not to try to save your home based on what you’ve done in advance to prepare.”
The fires are likely a traumatic experience for a lot of people.
Lauren Grand is Extension Forester for Lane County. She’s been working with woodland owners whose property burned in the Holiday Farm Fire. She helps landowners be aware of the risks of wildfires.
“It’s really important to empower landowners to be able to understand what they can do at their own homes to be able to reduce their own personal risk,” Grand said. “And so what we do is we inform people what the best ways are to be able to reduce that risk so they can start taking those actions at home right away.”
Grand said many property owners affected by fire have reached out for help with restoring their woodlands.
“I work with some landowners who have been interested in learning what steps they can take to get their forests back to where they were,” Grand said. “Or if they had some work planned or goals planned for their forest, they’re really interested in what steps they can take now to transition their forest to what they really hoped it can be.”
Grand said with the changes that have come from fire and climate change, a lot of people are wondering if they should replant the same species they’ve had in the past. She says that’s something OSU researchers are thinking about. But, she says landowners needn’t feel like they have to figure it all out right away.
“The fires were likely a traumatic experience for a lot of people and there might be some pressure from some people to feel like they need to get going right away and fix things and clean things up,” Grand said. “And I’d like to just remind people that it’s okay to take a step back and figure out what you really want to do and what you really want to accomplish.”
OSU’s extension program offers resources for landowners, including site visits, online classes, and videos.
Copyright 2021 KLCC.
