Salem, Ore. – A five-member committee tasked with advising the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) on the state’s Smoke Management Plan will meet Feb. 4 in Salem. Highlight items on the agenda include:
– Fall prescribed burning season review – Committee members will review prescribed forest burning activity and smoke intrusions that occurred during fall 2014.
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– West Bend forest restoration – Prescribed burning has been identified as an important tool to restore an overgrown forest tract west of the community of Bend in central Oregon. An update on the pace and scale of the project will be given.
– Smoke management data system charter – The committee will receive a status report on the effort to develop a new online database system for processing prescribed burning requests.
– Air quality non-attainment in Prineville – Testing has indicated that the community of Prineville is not meeting federal and state air quality standards due to various air quality impacts. The committee will discuss what this will mean for smoke management in the event that Prineville is listed as a “non-attainment” community.
– Discussion of available funding to support burning – The committee will determine how to most effectively allocate funds to reach prescribed burning goals in the future.
The meeting agenda can be viewed online at: www.oregon.gov/odf/Pages/fire/fire.aspx#Smoke_Management_Information
The meeting will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Tillamook Room – Administration Building (C), Oregon Department of Forestry headquarters, 2600 State St., in Salem.
The meeting is open to the public, and public comments will be received at 10:10 a.m. and 1:50 p.m.
By Oregon statute, the Smoke Management Advisory Committee includes representatives of industrial and non-industrial forest landowners, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the general public.
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