Nearly 5,100-acre prescribed burn begins near Walton Lake

After successful completion of a 5-acre test burn Tuesday morning, firefighters are moving forward with aerial ignitions for the 5,072-acre Canyon 66 prescribed burn about 20 miles east of Prineville, between the Ochoco Ranger Station and Walton Lake.

U.S. Forest Service officials said ignitions Tuesday would begin along the northwest border of the unit and slowly work toward the interior of the unit. Pending successful completion of burning operations Tuesday, fire managers plan to continue burning the interior of the unit Wednesday and work southeast toward Forest Service Road 22.

Several firefighters are stationed along the containment lines for the burn, to ensure the fire stays within the unit’s perimeter. Guards are posted along roads surrounding the unit to assist visitors and prevent people from entering the area during active ignitions.

Light winds out of the northwest Tuesday are expected to push smoke to the southeast of the burn unit, but smoke is expected to settle at low points overnight. Smoke will be visible in the immediate area and from nearby communities. Forest Road 22 will remain open to public travel, but flaggers are ready to assist with traffic, if needed.

Updates for the Canyon 66 prescribed burn on the Lookout Mountain Ranger District of the Ochoco National Forest will be posted to centraloregonfire.org, on Twitter @CentralORFire and on InciWeb at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6559/

Preparation work that began last year continues this week. Workers prepared containment lines around the unit by removing brush, tree limbs and other fuels, and digging hand lines in strategic places. Signs notifying the public of the planned activities are located around the unit.

Drone reconnaissance also is ongoing. Firefighters from Crook County Fire & Rescue, the Sunriver Fire Department, and the Redmond Fire Department have joined Forest Service and BLM firefighters in staffing and implementing the project.

The resource objectives of the Canyon 66 prescribed burn are to reduce the future threat of catastrophic wildfire by removing dead and down woody debris and other hazardous fuels. The burn will also benefit livestock and big game habitat by consuming decadent stands of grass and brush to open up and improve forage and range conditions in coming years, according to the Forest Service.

Ignitions for the Canyon 66 prescribed burn are expected to last two to three days. The interior will be burned using aerial ignition devices delivered from a helicopter. Forest Service Road 22 will remain open to public travel, but all roads within the unit and some nearby dispersed camping sites will temporarily close during burn operations to allow for public and fire fighter safety.

Smoke will impact nearby recreational facilities at Ochoco Forest Camp and Walton Lake during ignitions and for several days after. Fire managers will work to divert smoke away from residents using predicted winds, but smoke will be present and settle in adjacent communities overnight.

Prescribed burning is a proactive approach to fire management, reintroducing fire in a manner that reduces hazardous fuels, improves range and forest health, and benefits the fire-adapted ecosystem.

Prescribed burning can be strategically located across the landscape, is carefully managed to meet resource and smoke management objectives, and incorporates consideration for sensitive resources. Unplanned wildfires generally do not afford such benefits, burn with high intensity, and often require costly suppression efforts.

The Ochoco National Forest’s prescribed fire program has been utilizing aerial ignitions, in which incendiary balls are dropped from a helicopter, to accomplish larger, landscape level burns. This method is cost-effective and helps to consume dense pockets of fuel while restoring lower intensity fire across the majority of the landscape.

The Canyon 66 prescribed burn builds on a series of prior forest thinning and prescribed fire treatments throughout the area to restore a more open, resilient forest condition, officials said.