CORVALLIS, Ore. — The skies threatened rain, but 20 trainees in heavy coats and muddy boots gathered in Oregon State University’s Dunn Forest for lessons in prescribed fire.
"We’re giving them the information they’ll need to recommend prescribed fire as a practice, as a tool for landowners to use on their property.”
The class — taught by Forestry and Natural Resources Extension faculty — was a three-day learning experience for employees of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which works with private landowners on restoration projects.
Participants carpooled up a hill to a recently harvested patch of forest, where two piles of slash, one wet and one dry, stood ready. Across the valley, an oak savannah — an endangered habitat traditionally restored with fire — underscored the importance of the day’s lessons.
“We put together a curriculum to teach NRCS participants the basic foundations of prescribed fire,” said Carrie Berger, manager of the OSU Extension Fire Program. “We’re giving them the information they’ll need to recommend prescribed fire as a practice, as a tool for landowners to use on their property.”
To make those recommendations, NRCS staff must first be certified, said Tom Snyder of the NRCS Eugene field office. Snyder focuses on oak woodland and savannah, landscapes shaped for thousands of years by intentional burning by Indigenous people, including the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.
Indigenous burning practices range from small, family-oriented burns focused on cultural species to large-scale burns on reservation forests. Fire is still used today to produce quality basketry materials such as beargrass, hazel and willow. It also maintains habitat for traditional food and medicine plants such as camas, biscuitroot and huckleberries, Berger said.
Cultural burning supports wildlife habitat and plays a vital role in tribal traditions, culture and sovereignty. Practices vary across Oregon, but all are rooted in generations of knowledge about fire’s role in sustaining the land.
“We’ve been doing restoration without fire, which is the tool that created this landscape,” Snyder said. “We’ll be able to use fire in the future as part of our restoration methodology within the Willamette Valley.”
Fire as a management tool
Landowners typically use heavy machinery, mowing, spraying or grazing to thin overgrown land, said Stephen Fitzgerald, Extension silviculture specialist and director of the OSU Research Forests. Grazing leaves less fuel behind than mowing, but nothing works like fire.
“Fire recycles nutrients and causes a flush of growth,” Fitzgerald said. “Then those plants support insects, which are important pollinators, and other wildlife.”
Some threatened and endangered species, such as Fender’s blue butterfly, depend on open prairie and oak savannah rather than closed-canopy forests. Prescribed burning can reduce wildfire risk, rejuvenate prairie habitat and support biodiversity.
Classroom lessons and field practice
Before heading into the field, participants studied fuels, weather and planning strategies. In the forest, they followed instructors’ lead in lighting slash piles left from a recent harvest. One pile had been covered from rain, the other left open, offering a direct comparison. Trainees also practiced broadcast burning, in which fire is applied across the forest floor rather than in piles.
“That helps the students better educate landowners about conditions under which to burn and how to construct piles so they are dry enough to produce less smoke,” said Amanda Rau, fire specialist with the OSU Extension Fire Program in the Willamette Valley and North Cascades. “We want fire behavior that is controllable, predictable and within the objectives of the prescribed burn.”
The day’s goal was to demonstrate how prescribed fire can be used to remove slash, reduce hazards and recycle nutrients. “When I say best, I mean the most efficient,” Rau said. “Historically, fire has always been a tool for removing material, whether by tribes, early settlers or loggers.”
Planning and safety
Preparing for a burn requires a written plan, careful monitoring of weather and permits from the Oregon Department of Forestry to protect air quality. Conditions must ensure smoke won’t drift into populated areas or add to wildfire danger, Rau said.
Fitzgerald, who served as firing boss for the training, said conditions were nearly ideal. “One pile was covered and one was not,” he said. “One was smoky and the other burned clean with very little smoke. They got to see that hands-down.”
Building confidence
For NRCS staff like Lexi Gardner, who works in Linn and Benton counties, the class offered practical tools.
“Educating landowners will be super important, notifying them about liabilities and safety, and talking the lingo of prescribed fire,” Gardner said. “I’ve learned a lot about how to communicate that information.”
As the day ended, trainees and instructors returned to the Forestry Club Cabin. Fitzgerald reflected on the challenge of condensing years of knowledge into a short course.
“The hardest part in teaching prescribed burning is trying to pass along the accumulated knowledge of people who’ve done this their entire careers,” he said. “The fun part is bringing participants out here, letting them light fires and ask questions. That’s when the lessons really take hold.”
