Fire

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With a national wildfire crisis threatening communities, consuming forests, and exhausting firefighters, one naturally ignited incident offers hope, resilience, and adaptation. On Friday, May 19, 2023, a lightning strike ignited a fire in an area where some fuels reduction work was completed but further treatment was necessary. Initial attack arrived to find fire and forest working together as natural low intensity fire should. Here was a natural process under ideal conditions presenting opportunities for reducing overwhelming forest fuels; training and refreshing new and veteran firefighters; and testing tools to help manage wildfire in the future. By all measures the Dillon Creek Fire on the Chemult Ranger District of the Fremont-Winema National Forest is a story of success.

“The easy answer is to suppress the fire where it is, put it out and go home, “ said Jon Giller, retired fire and aviation manager for the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, “But with support from the district ranger, forest supervisor and regional forester, we were able to help fire return to its beneficial role on the landscape while accomplishing some agency objectives.”

Fire managers for the Fremont-Winema National Forest are proactive and primed to utilize unexpected opportunities to mitigate the looming wildfire crisis. After the Winema hotshots arrived and checked the fire to prevent uncontrolled burning, they immediately recognized the potential to reduce fuels over a larger area. ”It was very apparent from fire behavior that we had a real opportunity that we don’t see a lot,” explained Karl Krauter, superintendent of the Winema Hotshots, Fremont-Winema National Forest, “we couldn’t underburn better than what it had just done.”

With experienced people having open conversations, fire managers formed a modified suppression strategy. With access to resources ahead of fire season; a low intensity fire burning a pre-treated area; extra moisture from a wet spring season; and a favorable weather forecast, they planned the step-by-step approach to mimic a natural fire progression. First, they identified and strengthened pre-existing containment features like roads, that would stop a fire naturally. Then they began phased ignitions within their containment lines.

The Dillon Creek Incident secured four hotshot crews, a strike team of engines and several chippers who successfully maintained a natural low intensity fire through 3,119 acres of planned fire area. For the first few days they widened containment lines with hand thinning and chipping. Utilizing roads for containment is easier and safer for firefighters controlling a fire and mopping up later. Incidental benefit came from reinforcing some previously identified POD (Potential Operational Delineation) boundaries. These boundaries are pre-identified by experienced and skilled fire managers as the best locations to hold a wildfire safely and successfully.

The pre-season timing of the incident enabled four local hotshot crews to work together and learn from each other, enhancing their preparedness beyond routine training. The Lakeview and Winema Hotshots were available to lend their expertise in piloting UAS (Uncrewed Aircraft Systems). Both crews have licensed UAS pilots carded for aerial ignitions. Crews gained valuable experience practicing everything covered during their annual two-week training at a safer, slower tempo.

UAS were employed to drop “dragon eggs”, ping pong ball-like spheres that ignite areas within the containment lines in a deliberate, controlled manner that keeps fire intensity low. UAS offer a safer alternative than firefighters carrying drip-torches into a fire where they may become injured from falling snags or tripping hazards. They also provide eyes on the fire with infrared capable cameras that see through thick smoke.

“Allowing lightning fires to do what they have done historically, provides low intensity clean-up of the forest and creates a natural mosaic of burned and unburned areas, open stands of large trees and meadows with grasses, that will reduce fire risk while still serving wildlife.” Evan Wright, Fire Management Officer, Chiloquin/Chemult Ranger Districts, Fremont-Winema National Forest.

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The Red Knight Project on the Chemult Ranger District of the Fremont-Winema National Forest created a space safe for the Dillon Creek Fire to restore natural fire to a landscape adapted for it. Earlier treatments including a timber sale from 3 years ago removed small trees and excess understory to prepare the landscape for prescribed fire. “This is where we had two lightning strikes help natural fire return to a landscape that cannot thrive without it,” said Judd Lehman, District Ranger, Chiloquin/Chemult, Fremont-Winema National Forest.

Faced with a looming national wildfire crisis fueled by decades of fire suppression and warmer, drier climate conditions, fire managers must be strategic. They identify priority landscapes for targeted prescriptions aimed at reducing fuels, restoring forest resilience, and protecting communities. Fire managers have always based such decisions on the best available science. Just as nature adapts to changing conditions, so do our knowledge and policies.

In the past, discussion revolved around fire suppression at the smallest scale. Now it is evolving to reconsider increasing burned acreage of low intensity fire to improve firefighter safety; reduce more fuels; and restore fire to fire-adapted landscapes while mitigating risk of catastrophic wildfire.

“Perhaps 20, 50, 1000 or in this case, 3000 acres started by lightning strikes, burning at low intensity through understory, creeping through a few areas and stopping naturally at a big meadow, can be considered a positive,” said John Giller. This is exactly how fire once behaved naturally on this landscape at 10-to-20-year intervals. Firefighters would like to replicate natural regimes when possible.

“Policy tells us that we have suppression fires, and we have prescription fires. If we could look at fire differently, somewhere in between are fires that we could allow to do some good both for the ecosystem and for fire safety,” said John Giller.

Regardless of favorable conditions, success stories like the Dillon Creek Fire are not possible without strong partnerships based on trust and mutual respect.

“Fire managers considered many factors, but beyond the weather, beyond fuels conditions, beyond whether or not we had the resources to do it was coordination with our neighbors and cooperators,” said Evan Wright.

Partners were able to speak openly and arrive at a plan that addressed concerns about preserving large trees, sacred sites and preventing the spread of future catastrophic wildfire. Multiple agencies cooperating under the South-Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership planned and oversaw suppression operations. Klamath Tribes hired a new skilled Fire Management Officer who was active and engaged. Together they collaborated on a comfortable, scalable plan that could be executed in closely monitored stages.

The Dillon Creek Fire was a success because it had everything going for it: favorable natural conditions, trusted partnerships, adept managers, prime location, even the weather cooperated. It opened doors of possibility; an opportunity to put ideas to the test, and a much-needed moment for optimism. The scale of the wildfire crisis before us requires honesty, creativity, and willingness to seize unplanned opportunities.

This fire occurred within the Klamath River Basin Project area, a landscape identified under the National Wildfire Crisis Strategy as a priority for funding due to increased threat from wildfire for the communities of people and wildlife and the continued viability of the ecosystems we all depend on.

“There’re not enough people, not enough money for us to think that we’re going to prescribe burn the millions of acres of high fire hazard out there. But when we have the right conditions, weather, resources, and a landscape set up to accept fire, let’s go out there and make a difference,” said John Giller.