HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-13-10 Forester UpdateMEMORANDUM
DATE: October 13, 2010
TO: Deschutes County BOCC
FROM: Joe Stutler, Deschutes County Forester
RE: Forester Update
For the months of July-September the following projects and issues have either been
accomplished or addressed:
1. We are implementing the ODF grant agreement, we are approximately 50%
complete and have already exceeded both our acre and green ton targets and
continue with work in Central Oregon to treat wildland fuels and convert into
biomass.
2. We continue working with a FEMA contractor to complete the environmental
document for the new $3 million grant which we’ll being implementing in 2011.
Additionally we plan to apply for a fourth grant opportunity with partners from
Crook and Klamath Counties, the deadline for application is November 15, 2010.
3. We continue our work of fuels treatment in South County, Ponderosa Pines and
numerous low income/disabled citizens performing defensible space work on
both vacant lots and properties with homes. By the end of this calendar year we
will have treated every county owned lot from Sunriver south to the county line
except for those classified as wetland. Our plans with the wetlands are to
develop a comprehensive plan with ODF and State of Oregon Waterways to treat
the remaining vacant lots and other private lots in neighborhoods that have the
wetlands issue.
We continue to implement partnership opportunities with Awbrey Glen, Sunriver
and High Desert Museum which treats fuels with matching funding and efforts. In
total those three partnerships alone will treat over 700 acres and provide both
defensible space and biomass. This fall we plan a FireFree event with Bailey’s
@ Knott Landfill and will have sweat equity programs in the following areas which
will be used for biomass:
a. Deschutes River Woods
b. Awbrey Glen
c. Lane Knolls
d. Tillicum Village
e. Eagle Crest
4. The Sunriver CWPP was completed and we have had the initial meeting with
Bend with a scheduled completion of January 15, 2011.
5. Project Wildfire/FireFree Programs—we continue to meet monthly and provide
education opportunities to both existing neighborhoods and adding new ones
who want to participate in our programs. FireFree has officially evolved into a
year long effort using the annual spring cleanup to kick off the campaign before
the summer fire season.
6. The Deschutes National Forest was awarded our proposal which will essentially
create a healthy forest and treat fuels on approximately 130,000 acres in the
Bend watershed and areas in the Three Creeks and lands south and west of
Sisters.
7. During the Roster Rock wildland fire in August we capitalized on the teachable
moment and conducted a press conference at the Incident Command Post to
illustrate defensible space, fuels treatment and unwanted smoke from wildland
fires. The impacts from the fire and taking advantage of that incident have
significantly increased the demand for information, education and neighborhoods
wanting to do their part.
8. On September 29, 2010 I met with the BOCC to discuss the defensible space
ordinance in the unprotected lands in Deschutes County. The BOCC requested
time to study the proposal and is considering the policy questions outlined in the
presentation. Preliminarily the BOCC is considering a public hearing on the
matter and will decide direction to move forward with the policy questions
regarding the proposed ordinance.
Joe Stutler
Deschutes County Forester