Bend is a national test site to expand prescribed fires close to communities

"There is a balance to be struck," Larkin said. "We know that every time we do a burn in this area we know we are going to introduce smoke into the community. With prescribed fire, we know when that smoke is going to come in and we have the opportunity to limit how much smoke comes into the community. The idea is by doing this work, we prevent future times when we have wildfire smoke coming in for extended periods of time in amounts that make life really unhealthy for the town."