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Examining the History of Forest and Fire Management: a Deeper Look at How the Milli Fire Affected the Sisters Oregon Community

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Examining the History of Forest and Fire Management: a Deeper Look at How the Milli Fire Affected the Sisters Oregon Community Western Oregon University Digital Commons@WOU Honors Senior Theses/Projects Student Scholarship Spring 2020 Examining the History of Forest and Fire Management: A deeper look at how the Milli fire affected the Sisters Oregon community Morgan Williams Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/honors_theses Running Heading: FIRE MANAGEMENT Examining the History of Forest and Fire Management A deeper look at how the Milli fire effected the Sisters Oregon community By Morgan Williams An Honors Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Western Oregon University Honors Program Mark VanSteeter, Thesis Advisor Dr. Gavin Keulks, Honors Program Director June 2020 FIRE MANAGEMENT 2 Acknowledgements I want to thank my advisors, Gavin and Mark, for putting up with all my procrastination, questions, and late-night emails. I could not have done this without both of you supporting and encouraging me. My parents, who bore with me through all my breakdowns and helped, put me back together with love and support as well as some research help! My awesome house mom MacKenzie, who helped read over all my research and provide smart sounding words to use! All my roommates and friends, who have listened to me talk, complain about and procrastinate this project; I could not have finished this without any of you. Thank you for being on my team and a part of my life. I’m so grateful for you all! FIRE MANAGEMENT 3 Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………6 Literature Review: Forest Management Prescribed Burning………………………………..8 Forest Fire History Around the World and the USA……………………………………………21 Oregon Forest Fire History…………………………………………………………………………………29 How Forest Fires are Fought………………………………………………………………………………34 Sisters Oregon History……………………………………………………………………………………….40 Milli Fire…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….44 How Firefighters Lived While Fighting the Milli Fire…………………………………………..55 Economic Effects on a Community…………………………………………………………………….57 Prevention…………………………………………………………………………………………………………61 What to do When There is a Forest Fire…………………………………………………………….65 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..67 Appendix (Transcribed Interviews)……………………………………………………………………69 Interview with Brad from Sisters Folk Fest……………………………………………..69 Interview with James from the Forest Service………………………………………..88 Interview with Jeri from the Sister City Chamber of Commerce…………….122 Interview with Jinny a Fire Prevention Education Specialist………………….129 Interview with Nate a Wildland Fire Fighter………………………………………….158 Interview with Roger the Sisters Fire Station Chief……………………………….178 References………………………………………………………………………………………………………207 FIRE MANAGEMENT 4 Abstract Forest management is an ever-changing process. With new research and technology, forest management has dramatically changed over the last few decades. In 1995, 16% of the US Forest Service’s budget was devoted to firefighting, in 2015 it was more than 50% of the budget, and estimates say that it could be as much as 70% of the budget by the year 2025 (Struzik, 238). This raise in cost is due in part to the lengthening of wildfire season. Over the last 40 years, the average fire season in the US has gone from 23 days long to an average of 116 days (Davis, p. 92). This compilation will review important literature related to forest management, explore fire management based on differing geological areas, assess how forest fires impact communities using the 2017 Milli Fire as an example, and interview professionals in the field of forest and fire management all in hopes to bring awareness, prevention, and increased social responsibility to readers. FIRE MANAGEMENT 5 Introduction Wildfire has been a natural part of the world’s ecosystem long before humans had the ability or desire to do anything about them. Globally an area the size of New Zealand burns each year, this is about 1% of the world's forest that burns every year (Spilsbury, 2018, p. 5). Over the last few hundred years, human involvement in forest and fire management has dramatically changed the course of wildfires. Over the last 40 years, the average fire season in the US has gone from 23 days long to an average of 116 days (Davis, 2019, p. 92). This in combination with increased population, expansion of dwellings into forested areas, and climate instability has led to a new kind of wildfire that is bigger and more destructive than previous years' wildfires. A Megafire is a fire that burns at least 100,000 acres and over the last three decades, the number of Megafires that occurs each year has been on the rise (TEDx Talks, 2017). This change over time can be attributed to a combination of warmer and dryer climate contributing to less precipitation and enabling more frequent, bigger, and hotter forest fires to occur (Davis, 2019, p. 91-92). Another reason for this new kind of fire is due to the urban-wildland interface or WUI (Struzik, 2017, P. 3). With a growing population, new homes are being built in places prone to wildfire creating more kindling for a fire when one does occur. In the US about 9% of land area is considered to be WUI with around FIRE MANAGEMENT 6 39% of all US housing units are in this fire-prone area (Radeloff et al., 2005). This means that when a wildfire happens in these areas it's even more important for it to be dealt with quickly to protect the people and homes that are there. This has led to a rising cost of forest and fire management. In 1995 16% of the US Forest Service’s budget was devoted to firefighting, in 2015 it was more than 50% of the budget, and estimates say that it could be as much as 70% of the budget by the year 2025 (Struzik, 2017, p. 238). This compilation will review important literature related to forest management, explore fire management based on differing ecological areas, assess how forest fires impact communities using the 2017 Milli Fire as an example, and interview professionals in the field of forest and fire management all in hopes to bring awareness, prevention, and increased social responsibility to readers. FIRE MANAGEMENT 7 Literature Review: Forest Management Prescribed Burning Prescribed burns and forest management are critical aspects of forest health and preservation. Recent research has shown this to be true. An overall theme from some of the research shows how forests have been managed over the past 100 years. In this timeframe, fire management strategy was focused on instantly extinguishing any fires. It can be seen now that this strategy has led to a massive build-up of fuels, creating the potential for larger forest fires later. Over the last 15 years, large wildfires seem more rampant due to poor management years before. The following section will provide an overview of what research literature has shown in the field of forest maintenance in a variety of different areas of the world. Research surveyed forests in the United States, Australia, Spain, Texas, Canada, and a variety of other places. An article from the Journal of Environmental Management, “The role of prescribed burn associations in the application of prescribed fires in rangeland ecosystems,” surveyed people’s perceptions and attitudes toward fire management and how changing that could impact prescribed fire strategies being implemented (Toledo, et al., 2013). This study was conducted by a team of researchers out of the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University, the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech, and Sonora AgriLife Research Station also at Texas FIRE MANAGEMENT 8 A&M University. The study was conducted in 12 counties in Texas, made up of groups of four counties in each of three ecoregions, areas with grasslands, savannahs, and those impacted by brush encroachment. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 1187 landowners to collect data about landowner attitudes and perceptions toward the use of prescribed fire as a management and restoration tool. Mainly a 7 point Likert-type scale was used in which participants were asked to convey agreement or disagreement with statements about prescribed fire. “Perception of the risk of using fire relative to that of using other woody plant management options, perceived constraints of applying fire including lack of skill, labor, knowledge and equipment, and whether or not they are a member of a PBA (Prescribed Burn Association)” (Toledo, et al., 2013). They found that the reintroduction of fire is essential to restore degraded grassland and savanna ecosystems and to reduce fuel load build-up. The challenge to carrying this out is the perception from landowners to intentionally ignite fires on their land. When they do this, landowners are taking the risk of starting a fire without professional advice. They found that human-influenced changes of fire systems have significantly contributed to “brush encroachment and degradation of many grasslands and savannas” (Toledo, et al., 2013). They emphasize that Prescribed Burn Associations could reduce risk perceptions regarding the use of FIRE MANAGEMENT 9 prescribed fire and their importance for restoring brush-encroached grasslands and savannas. Secondly, a team of researchers published an article titled, “Wildfire fuel management: network-based models and optimization of prescribed burning” (Matsypura, et al., 2018). The study was conducted out of the University of Sydney, University of Pittsburgh, and the
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