PORTLAAAAAND!

July 28^th:

This summer’s fire season in eastern Oregon has been pretty intense. In fact, my very own supervisor, Caryn Burri (the Burns District Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Coordinator) has been devoting most of her time and attention over the last couple weeks to what has been dubbed the nation’s largest wildfire by news outlets across America—the 618-sq. mile Buzzard Complex Fire of eastern Oregon which is located only 45 miles northeast of our Burns district BLM office. The fire burned a good amount of both private and public (BLM managed) land. Many ranchers lost cows, fences were destroyed, water sources impaired and of course, the vegetation was burned to nothing. As interns, Marta and I have been given the incredible opportunity to witness (and be a part of) the whole process of our fellow Burns District BLM employees responding to the fire, working together to come up with an ES&R management plan, presenting the plan to the ranchers that have been effected by the fire, and –if all goes well and the needed funding is received from the state office– carrying out some of the planned actions (such as invasive plant treatments) this coming Fall!!!

It was this 28^th day in July that Marta and I attended the Buzzard Complex Fire ES&R planning meeting. At this meeting were three rangeland management specialists, the district weed coordinator, the ES&R coordinator, the district wildlife biologist, a geographic information system specialist, the district planning and environmental coordinator, a Wildhorse management specialist, a civil engineering technician and….. To begin the meeting everyone went around expressing their initial concerns of the fire including human life and safety, invasive plant infestation, soil and water stabilization, wild/feral horses, roads in need of repair, etc. Once everyone’s concerns were discussed, each specialist brought their thoughts to the table in regard to what should be done when it comes to invasive plant treatments, biological thinning(intensive grazing of biological thinning), aerial and drill seeding of native and desirable vegetation, water developments, fence and road repairs, sage grouse habitat protection and restoration, taking special interest groups to tour the fire in hope of collaboration, presenting the plan to the permittees/ranchers, etc. It is also important to note that the big GIS map of the burned area that was on the table in front of everyone was being marked on constantly to show where they planned to implement high and low-priority aerial/drill seeding, where the invasive plant treatment areas/buffer zones are located, where they plan to plant cottonwoods, where they plan to vegetate with antelope bitterbrush, etc. If anyone looked over at me during that meeting they would have seen my eyes and ears jumping all over the room from one conversation to the next and my right hand writing down all I heard so as not to miss any part of it all. Loved every second of it—super exciting to be in the middle of a real Bureau of Land Management planning meeting, instead of just learning about it in the classroom!!!

Buzzard Complex Fire ES&R planning meeting

Buzzard Complex Fire ES&R planning meeting

July 31st:

Just days after attending the Buzzard Complex Fire ES&R planning meeting, I was thrilled when my supervisor told me of the opportunity I had to attend the permittee (rancher)/BLM meeting after work in the nearby town of Crane. It was awesome to actually be a part of something (stakeholder/permittee meeting) I was only able to act out with my fellow classmates last fall semester in my capstone natural resource management class. The purpose of the permittee meeting was to make sure that the ranchers were involved with the plan from the start. The ranchers are of course a huge stakeholder group in this Buzzard Complex Fire ES&R plan because they are the ones who own the permits that allow them to graze that land. It is always wise to go to stakeholder groups such as this with your proposed management plan as soon as possible in order to avoid complications/surprises in the future as your plan is getting closer and closer to being finalized/decided on by the higher ups in order to get the ok and the $$$ cash-money (funding ha). Not only did the ES&R BLM team inform the ranchers of their plan and answer their questions/concerns, they also asked for (and happily received) help and collaboration from the ranchers which were able to provide important information and insight about the fire-damaged lands. The ranchers were asked to draw on the provided maps where fences needed fixing, where water sources needed repair, where invasive plants are really bad, and where the roads were that needed invasive plant treatment. The ranchers were also asked if any of them would be willing to have their cattle biologically thin the invasive annual cheatgrass/medusahead wildrye that is bound to spring up from the ashes this fall. A good number of ranchers agree to be part of the biological thinning practice this fall. Then, the ranchers were told of the many ways the Burns District BLM could help them to rehabilitate their private land. For instance, the BLM could give them the names and numbers of the helicopter/aerial seeding contractors they will be using so that the ranchers can piggy back on a good deal. The rangeland management specialists also provided advice to the ranchers about what species to seed, high priority seeding and invasive plant treatment areas on their private land, etc., because you see, the problem with the West’s checkerboard (public vs. privately) owned and managed lands is that what the private landowners do or don’t do to manage their land has an impact on the adjacent public land and vice-versa.

I was very happy to be able to attend such an important (stakeholder) meeting where I was able to get the real feel for what these ranchers have to overcome after such a devastating fire. I was also very impressed with the wonderful collaboration I witnessed that went on between the public land managers I work with and look up to as an intern and the private land owners of the area.

My supervisor and lead ES&R coordinator for the Buzzard Complex Fire Caryn Burri presenting the proposed plan to the permittees/ranchers affected by the fire.

Travis Miller (Burns District BLM -Rangeland Management Specialist) giving advice to his permittees!

Wowzerz, that was a long one…Phew!