Oregon Is On Fire

Togwotee · Tuesday at 11:26 AM

I'm a life long eastern OR resident and I've never seen anything like this. hundreds of thousands of acres burnt and no end in sight.

there are many ramifications but since this is a hunting site let me say this, in many units you better rethink your plans because your area might be gone. and possibly worse much of the ground already burnt is wintering grounds and this winter could be catastrophic .

I'm as worried as I've ever been about fire damage. this is awful.

CC11 · Tuesday at 2:00 PM

I hear ya. Lived in LG my whole life and fought fires for the Forest Service for 7 years. Crazy how the fires are ripping through everything right now, maybe in late August but by that thinking we still have a month before it hits peak fire danger. This is the type of year that the watershed goes up and the only chance will be to catch it at the roads...

callsalot · 2024-07-24T08:05:57-0600

I'm also a lifelong Oregonian in the central part of the state. I was hoping with the better moisture year and reservoirs final full it would be a better year but obviously I was wrong. I guess double the amount of people compared to when I grew up here and you get double the fires.

Firedad · 2024-07-24T08:28:28-0600

It’s a busy year up there for sure. 427,906 acres burned so far this year, 1573 fires. The areas I hunted up there had burned a few years ago.

CC11 · 2024-07-24T08:48:42-0600

callsalot said:
I'm also a lifelong Oregonian in the central part of the state. I was hoping with the better moisture year and reservoirs final full it would be a better year but obviously I was wrong. I guess double the amount of people compared to when I grew up here and you get double the fires.

Tough thing about wet springs is it grows the underbrush and grass then when we stop getting moisture and it heats up quick it cures out and we end up with that much more fuel load. That and in certain areas the fuel load from no logging, thinning or prescribed burns we've just been setting up for big fire events.

gundog2 · 2024-07-24T12:05:06-0600

Firedad said:
It’s a busy year up there for sure. 427,906 acres burned so far this year, 1573 fires. The areas I hunted up there had burned a few years ago.

The National Interagency Fire Center reports 791,653 acres burned in Oregon with seven new fires and zero fires contained. That is more than the nine other listed states combined. That sounds bad, especially this early in the season.

Bluehair · 2024-07-25T05:52:32-0600

Good luck up there. Besides the tangible losses, all of these fires have impacts that roar thru the western insurance markets as well. The vultures follow every time.

LIK2HNT · 2024-07-25T07:44:31-0600

From this morning. New fires constantly popping up.

Nilguhm · 2024-07-25T08:22:43-0600

It is crazy out there. I just drove back from Boise on 84 between closures. Fire close to the freeway on both sides. Unbelievable.

Murphy · 2024-07-25T18:40:46-0600

The Timber Canyon fire came almost to my property line Tuesday. I fought it with a backpack sprayer but couldn't keep up, just too steep and rocky. I made progress in the grass but for the sage I would have to move on then try to come back when they burned down. A helicopter showed up with a water basket and dipped water out of an irrigation dam on our place. Great pilot, he put it out before it hit the canyon bottom. If it hit the bottom we would have evacuated. Now the Badlands fire is coming up from the SW. 2800 recorded lightning strikes in SE Oregon and SW Idaho yesterday.

LIK2HNT · 2024-07-25T19:58:22-0600

Murphy said:
The Timber Canyon fire came almost to my property line Tuesday. I fought it with a backpack sprayer but couldn't keep up, just too steep and rocky. I made progress in the grass but for the sage I would have to move on then try to come back when they burned down. A helicopter showed up with a water basket and dipped water out of an irrigation dam on our place. Great pilot, he put it out before it hit the canyon bottom. If it hit the bottom we would have evacuated. Now the Badlands fire is coming up from the SW. 2800 recorded lightning strikes in SE Oregon and SW Idaho yesterday.

Be safe. Sounds like you can not get a break.

Murphy · 2024-07-25T21:03:47-0600

LIK2HNT said:
Be safe. Sounds like you can not get a break.

We're packed and ready to go if need be. Just a lot of tension.

Togwotee · 2024-07-25T22:18:38-0600

Talked to a guy from Condon today that said they lost 250 head in the first days of the Lonerock fire. makes you wonder how many deer and elk are going to be lost, the fawns aren't big enough to cover the miles they may have to. the Durkee and Cow fires combined to over 400,000 acres, that's an insane size area. the Heppner unit is on track for a near total wipe out.

And what does survive will be pushed into a smaller area where hunters will congregate . some units should have season cancelled but OFW never will. then comes winter.

Now we have a fire blowing up in the Ochoco unit. no good news in sight , and it's not even August yet.