USFS: West Bend area to close for thinning, mowing

Beginning Nov. 30, the Deschutes National Forest will be implementing an area closure in the West Bend Project area while commercial thinning and mowing operations are occurring.

Contractors will be commercially thinning an 890 acre timber sale unit in West Bend, lasting about four to six months. An additional 1,030 acres of mowing will occur within the unit during the same period.

Operators will be using large equipment and may not see you if you are in the area, officials warned. For the safety of the public and the people working in the area, an area closure will be in effect weekly, from 4 a.m. Mondays through 5 p.m. Fridays until the project is completed.

The area will be available for public use every weekend, as well as on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Trail closures within the area include Phil’s Trail, Marvin’s Garden, The Lair, COD, Elfin Magic, Grand Slam, and others. Forest Road 4610 from Skyliners to Cascade Lakes Highway will also be closed in conjunction with thinning and removal.

Of the 140 miles of non-motorized trails in the West Bend area, about 25 miles will be closed during this thinning and mowing operation.

For up-to-date trail closure information in West Bend, visit: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/webmaps/deschutes/west-bend/

The unit is part of a 5,226-acre contract area known as “Ruble.” This timber sale contract is broken into units and work is expected to continue on this contract through 2020.

Ruble is one portion of the 26,000-acre “West Bend Vegetation Project” within the Deschutes National Forest and adjacent to the city of Bend slated for restoration work being done in conjunction with the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project.

Thinning – Commercial thinning in this area is used to provide a diversity of forest structure and associated wildlife habitats that are reflective of the forest’s historic structure.

Mowing – Frequently used prior to underburning, this restoration process reduces the height of flammable understory fuels such as grass and brush, which also decreases the potential impacts of a wildfire.

The West Bend Vegetation Project is the first project from the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project area that the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project Steering Committee and the Deschutes National Forest have worked on together from the very beginning of designing, through planning, and now to implementation. The West Bend Project is designed to restore forest ecosystems, creating a diversity of plant and wildlife habitat, reduce the risk to our community from high severity wildfire, and provide economic and social benefit to our local community.