Fairbanks Burn
A RVPBA member lays down fire using a drip torch
Below is a writeup from landowner Rich Fairbanks, who worked with the Rogue Valley Prescribed Burn Association to conduct a burn in Spring 2021.
We bought 20 acres in 2003. This land was mined and ditched, logged in 1904 and logged again in 1970. It had some problems. The forest was very dense, with over a thousand trees per acre in some spots. Other parts were forested, but had formerly been brush-fields and were full of shrub skeletons, many tons per acre of fuel.
We developed a plan, started thinning. Restoring ecosystem structure and function at the twenty acre scale was initially just that: thin, pile, burn; repeat many times over. A lot of fun, much better than golf. We knew that thin-pile-burn would function as a proxy for repeated low severity fires. That it would reduce Rate Of Spread, Resistance To Control and Severity. But we also knew that it would not replace the benefits of the low severity ‘under-burns’ that used to creep around in these forests. So gradually we started letting burning piles creep a little bit. Then a little more, always with hose and fire tools handy. After a while we were able to burn a tenth of an acre at a time, always with great caution.
This changed when we started working with the Rogue Valley Prescribed Burn Association (RVPBA). First, they came out and collected data for a burn plan. Then we got a permit from ODF. The RVPBA announced the burn to their mail list and on the day of the burn 30 friends, neighbors and prescribed burn advocates showed up! In addition, two engines with crew volunteered their time. The volunteers stretched hose around the entire burn and built scratch line in a few places where there was no trail. After an excellent briefing, the lighters began lighting at the top of the burn. A spot fire across the line was quickly jumped by half a dozen people and was soon extinguished. The lighters slowly pulled strips of fire across the planned burn. Within two hours the entire block was lit and the top part was pretty much out cold. Everything went as planned and at this writing in spring of the following year, the burn is sporting a nice cover of shooting stars and hound’s tongue.
When we began getting help from friends and neighbors, from the RVPBA, is when we really started managing the wildfire hazard on our property. We were able to under-burn our trickiest north slope, a stand of trees on very steep ground, a stand very close to the house, and we did it safely.
-Rich Fairbanks