Oregon Landowner Brings Good Fire Back to the Forest

Rich Fairbanks at his property in the Little Applegate Valley, OR.

Rich Fairbanks knows what a healthy forest looks like, so when he and his wife bought forested land in the Little Applegate Valley in Southern Oregon in 2003, he started making plans to bring fire back to the land.

“These forests historically saw fire, on average, about every six to ten years” said Fairbanks. Rich holds a Masters degree and a technicians degree in forestry, and is a founding FUSEE Board Member, and has semi-retired after a 32 year career with the Forest Service, which included 20 years in fire management.

“Since 1911, we have been suppressing fires to the maximum extent possible” Fairbanks adds. This has decreased biodiversity, allowed more fuel to build up, and led to higher intensity fires. 

There are however obstacles to carrying out prescribed burns on private land, including the need for trained firefighters, fire engines, and many watchful eyes to keep track of the fire’s behavior. After years of doing his own micro-burns, Fairbanks was able to collaborate with the Rogue Valley Prescribed Burn Association, a first of its kind group for the state.

Prescribed Burn Associations bring together landowners, volunteers, and trained fire professionals to put “good fire” on the land. This allows private landowners to gain the ecological benefits of fire, as well as improve home safety by reducing burnable materials.

As fire moves over the forest floor, it provides crucial benefits for forest health: small rival trees are killed off to maintain resources for larger established ones; forest litter is burned off, revealing seeds below; ash from burned materials increase the soil’s Ph, improving growing conditions for plants. Without fire, plant material continues to increase, and with it the risk for higher intensity fires.

A prescribed fire does its work on the Fairbanks Land back in 2014.

“Our forests were once structured so that fires burned often, but at very low intensity. Surface fuels were sparse, most of the trees were thick-barked and well-spaced” said Fairbanks. These features were clearly on display at Fairbanks’ land on a recent visit in early September.

Collaborative efforts such as Prescribed Burn Associations work with the understanding that fire exclusion is not advantageous or even possible in fire-adapted forests. Instead of waiting for the next catastrophic wildfire to occur in the hottest and driest conditions, they strategically implement fire when the weather is cool and the humidity is appropriate.

FUSEE advocates for ecological fire management through dramatically increasing the use of prescribed fire and Indigenous cultural burning. We do this by working with the media, land management agencies, and the public to bring about a new fire paradigm, where fire is no longer the enemy but instead becomes an ally in sustainable land stewardship.

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