The fire now raging in New Mexico squelched plans for prescribed burning on 1,100 acres of federal forest land in Jackson and Josephine counties this spring. That includes 800 acres in the Bureau of Land Management's Medford District and at least 300 acres on the Butte Falls Ranger District in the Rogue River National Forest. We will not be burning during the fire season this year.
Safety is our number one concern.
The Oregon Department of Forestry, in coordination with other natural resource agencies, determines when fire season begins and ends each year. The BLM is an arm of the Interior while the Forest Service is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture. We still have about 300 acres more to do up in Butte Falls. But, in another 30 days, that could be out the window. Both agencies use prescribed burning as a tool to reduce the threat of large dry-season fires by burning brush and other vegetation.