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In August 2017, Nils Christoffersen suggested that perhaps the Lostine Canyon Community would be interested in connecting with Alyssa Cudmore, manager of the “My Blue Woodland Partnership” at Wallowa Resources, to learn more about the Firewise USA’s program for reducing wildfire risk at a community level. He also shared with us that during the 2015 Canyon Creek Complex Fire, in Grant County, 40+ homes were lost; but in one community, which had implemented Firewise recommendations, all the homes had survived.
By November 2017, a small Working Group of Lostine Canyon residents were meeting with Wallowa Resources to learn more about Firewise USA, what steps were required in becoming a “Firewise Community”. Meanwhile, a new resident, Gary Willis, who was formerly the Fire Chief in Hood River, had just moved into the High Lostine subdivision. His positive familiarity with Firewise provided additional momentum to the community organizing effort.
In January 2018, a larger meeting with Lostine Canyon residents resulted in strong support for the decision to move forward with conducting a “Community Risk Assessment”, an essential step in becoming recognized as a Firewise Community. By the end of the month, the assessment process was underway, led by Forestry Consultant and Grant County’s Firewise Coordinator, Irene Jerome, along with assistance from Wallowa Resources, as well as other Wallowa County’s CWPP partner agencies.
In March 2018, the Lostine Canyon Community learned that it had been awarded a $500 grant from the National Fire Protection Association, the sponsor of Firewise USA, to perform maintenance on the Lostine Fire Department’s Type 6 Brush Engine, and provide training to Lostine Canyon residents on its operation during national “Community Wildfire Preparedness Day” in May
In April 2018, another community meeting was conducted to coincide with the annual meeting of the High Lostine Owners Association, to take advantage of an outreach opportunity to many of the community’s part-time and seasonal residents. The meeting provided background on Wallowa County’s efforts to update its identification and analysis of wildfire risk and outlined the County’s collaborative strategy for reducing the vulnerability of “Communities at Risk”, such as Lostine Canyon. An overview of the Firewise USA program focused on how adopting its approach could help us to individually and collectively address Lostine Canyon’s extreme wildfire risk.
Also in April 2018, led by former Hood River Fire Chief and now Lostine Canyon resident, Gary Willis, along with Tim Cudmore, a “Stewardship Forester” for Oregon Department of Forestry, we began offering “no cost” home and property assessments to provide interested residents with recommendations about what they could do to reduce wildfire risk to their homes. Throughout this continuing community organizing effort, we repeatedly emphasized that participation in the Firewise program and implementing any Firewise-recommended actions was completely voluntary.
In May 2018, for “Community Wildfire Preparedness Day”, it turned out that the Lostine Fire Department’s insurance underwriter had concerns with allowing civilians to use their firefighting equipment. So, rather than conduct training on its brush engine, we instead conducted a well-attended field workshop on “How Flaming Embers from Wildfires Ignite Homes”.
In January 2019, the interim Firewise Working Group presented the draft Lostine Canyon Community Firewise Assessment to the community, solicited suggestions about what to include in an initial Action Plan, and formalized establishment of a Firewise Committee – all being requirements for becoming a recognized Firewise USA community. The new volunteer members of Lostine Canyon’s initial Firewise Committee included: Fred Brockman, Ron Polk, Dick Bull, Mike and Monica Eng, Ron and Jackie Wagner, Gary Willis, Mickey McClendon, and John Pollard.
Many community members had expressed their opinion that the first priority for an Action Plan should be to ensure everyone’s safety in the event of a wildfire. The newly formed Firewise Committee took the community’s advice and in February 2019, began working on a “Lostine Canyon Emergency Evacuation Plan” with Paul Karvoski, Wallowa County’s Emergency Services Director. The Firewise Committee also worked on finalizing both the Lostine Canyon Community Firewise Assessment, as well as an initial Firewise Action Plan to guide community efforts for the next year.
In April 2019, the Lostine Canyon Firewise Committee finalized the Lostine Canyon Community Firewise Assessment and submitted it to Firewise USA, which initiated our application to become formally recognized as a Firewise community. Getting to this step would have been impossible without the assistance, guidance and support of our agency and organization partners, but especially from Jenny Reinheardt, Irene Jerome, and Alyssa Cudmore.
The May 2019, “Community Wildfire Preparedness Day” was commemorated with a community potluck to learn more about the Firewise program and to hear about and provide feedback on the draft Action Plan, as well as the draft Lostine Canyon Emergency Evacuation Plan, that had been developed by the Firewise Committee.
In June 2019, we hosted an informative field workshop on “Forest Health”, presented by OSU Extension Forester, John Punches. He provided an overview on how to identify diseased and insect-damaged trees in our neighborhood. Our big accomplishment, after much work by many dedicated residents and agency partners, was finally submitting our complete application package to become a nationally recognized “Firewise USA” community. By the end of the month, Lostine Canyon Firewise had been formally approved!
Wasting no time, through the lead of Firewise Committee member John Pollard’s efforts, another important item in our Action Plan was implemented in July 2019. With the assistance of Matt Howard, Wallowa Unit Forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry, a new “Fire Danger Sign” was installed near the entrance to the Lostine Wildlife Area, at a highly visible corner on the Lostine River Road leading into the Lostine Canyon community. Informing the large number of summer visitors from outside Wallowa County driving up Lostine Canyon on their way to U.S. Forest Service campgrounds and trailheads about the current fire danger was a high priority identified by the Firewise Committee.
August 2019 provided opportunities to educate homeowners about the meaning of fire danger ratings, as well as “Fire Restrictions and Closures” issued by the Oregon Department of Forestry, for different Forest Protection throughout the state, depending on local fire danger conditions. For example, a homeowner engaged in burning backyard debris in an open fire, despite the “High” fire danger and previously issued fire restrictions prohibiting this activity by ODF. One clear lesson from this experience was that it was going to be challenging to inform property owners about the extreme risk of wildfire in Lostine Canyon, especially to part-time residents, and encourage them to change their accustomed behavior and voluntarily adopt new practices to reduce the risks from wildfire.
In October 2019, we celebrated the installation by the County’s road crew, of our “official” Firewise community sign alongside Lostine River Road near the entrance to the community, across from the new “Fire Danger Sign”, with County Commissioners Susan Roberts and John Hillock and Firewise Committee members in attendance. The Wallowa County Chieftain covered the event with an article and photo.
In November 2019, the Chair of the County’s CWPP Committee, Matt Howard, established a new “Wallowa County Firewise Community Subcommittee” to focus on supporting additional organizing efforts by other communities interested in the Firewise USA program. Resident Leader for Lostine Canyon Firewise, Mike Eng, joined the Subcommittee to share lessons learned from their efforts in becoming the first nationally recognized Firewise community in NE Oregon.
Under Matt Howard’s leadership, ODF continued its full commitment to supporting additional Firewise communities in NE Oregon. Through creative problem solving with other CWPP partners, Wallowa Resources was able to hire Lisa Mahon in March 2020, as the first Firewise Community Coordinator for Wallowa County with funding provided by ODF.
With the rise of COVID in early 2020, and much of the nation staying home and isolating, as much as possible, community Firewise activities in the Lostine Canyon largely came to a halt. Many committed individuals, however, worked on their own property to reduce their risk from wildfire.
After many months of effort, led by Fred Brockman, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) awarded a grant for fuels reduction on a 35-acre lot commonly owned by the High Lostine Owners Association (HLOA). The required Forest Management Plan for the project, developed with the assistance of OSU Extension Forester John Punches, a CWPP partner, focused on maintaining age class and species diversity, post-thinning. This strip of land was located between privately-owned lots and the U.S. Forest Service’s Eagle Cap Wilderness boundary. Daniel Jacob from Lostine was the contractor hired to perform the work.
Outreach to the manager of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) Lostine Wildlife Area, conducted by the Firewise Committee via email, brought attention to individuals driving their vehicles, through high grass meadows during high and extreme fire danger. The high operating temperatures of catalytic converters on vehicles is a known fire hazard for igniting dry grasses. Although the manager expressed his understanding of the wildfire risk posed by off-road travel and vowed to prevent vehicular access through the Wildlife Area in the future, no action has been taken to date. ODFW, however, did authorize their consulting ODF forester, Sarah Andersen, to conduct thinning operations in a particularly high fuel load area of the Lostine Wildlife Area, adjacent to private property. The work was accomplished under the leadership of Doug Hellinger by an ODF fire crew on standby towards the end of the fire season.
The County’s Firewise Subcommittee continued working on improving its structural and property assessment procedures in 2021, along with training additional ODF staff to conduct them for interested property owners throughout the County. Doug Hellinger and Crisi Campanelli were designated as the ODF leads for conducting the structural and property assessments. Meanwhile, two new communities in the County expressed an interest in learning more about how to become a Firewise community. Work also began on producing a glossy Wallowa County Firewise brochure that could be used for communication and outreach purposes, under the leadership of John Rizza and John Punches, from OSU Extension.
Instead of trying to get together in person during COVID, we mailed out to community members our first (and so far only) Lostine Canyon Firewise Newsletter to celebrate “Community Wildfire Preparedness Day” in May 2021.
Also in May 2021, Lostine Canyon became the proud stewards of a 300-gallon Type 6 brush fire truck, purchased by Firewise Committee member, Gary Willis, who used his connections as a former Hood River fire chief to locate a reasonably priced used fire truck in good condition. Gary then thoroughly serviced the truck and its pumps; he even had “Lostine Canyon Fire Department” painted on the doors. Gary has made the fire truck available to the community. We lost no time training interested community members in its operation. The fire truck will allow for immediate response to a fire event until the Lostine Fire Department and other county emergency responders arrive. The truck will also be great to have on hand when someone is burning piles of woody debris.
In July 2021, we installed a new, much larger Firewise sign that would be more readable, especially to visitors driving past on their way up the canyon. Firewise Committee member Ron Polk took the lead in working with Hayes Printing and Graphics to design a very attractive sign.
So far, in 2022, the focus for Lostine Canyon Firewise has been on facilitating additional efforts by property owners to develop “defensible space” around their homes. After being awarded a $75,000 Firewise Grant through funding resulting from passage of the state's new comprehensive wildfire legislation, we will be able to make substantial additional progress on reducing fuel loads within the community and help more homeowners reduce their risks from wildfire.
Compiled by Mike Eng
March 2022