Deschutes Natl. Forest begins prescribed burns

It may only be April, but it’s never too early to start preparing for fire season.

The first prescribed burn of the year for the Deschutes National Forest was carried out Tuesday along China Hat Road south of Bend.

Because of the mild winter we’re coming out of, the Forest Service was able to get a head start. After last year’s historic fire season, crews are taking every opportunity to get a jump on this year, while conditions are not too dry and hot, and they can contain the burns.

But even with extra preparation, it’s almost impossible to predict what this fire season will look like.

“It’s hard to say what this fire season’s going to be,” forest Information Officer Kassidy Kern said. “When you look at the way the climate is changing all of the time, we as a land management agency really need to be responsive to that and control the things that we can.”

One way to do that is taking early measures like this one.

But because of the climate change Kern mentioned, the window for these kinds of preparations is getting smaller every year.

“We’ve been able to track from decades ago, when fire season was literally a couple months long, to now it’s going for six months or longer,” Assistant Fire Management Officer Robert Newey said. “That shoulder season is turning into fire season.”

Officials also carried out a controlled burn northwest of Bend on Tuesday.