Landowners and federal agencies in rural Oregon don’t always have the best relationships, especially when it comes to fire management. But as first reported in the Blue Mountain Eagle newspaper, landowners and managers in Grant County have been working with state and federal agencies to reduce wildfire risk. The Top Road Fuel Break project would clear vegetation from a stretch of public land that abuts private homes and ranches — both reducing the amount of potential fuel for future wildfires and protecting the surrounding communities.
James Osborne is the fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management’s Prineville District. Irene Jerome has long served as the Firewise coordinator for Grant County. And Bill Newman is the manager of Top Ranch, near Monument. They were all involved in the project and join us to share more details.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. We start today on this Friday with an example of collaboration. As recently reported in the Blue Mountain Eagle newspaper, landowners have been partnering with federal and state officials on a project in Grant County to reduce wildfire risk. It’s called The Top Road Fuel Break project. James Osborne is the fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management’s Prineville District. Irene Jerome has long served as the Firewise coordinator for Grant County and Bill Newman is the manager of Top Ranch near Monument. They are all involved in this project and they all join us now. It’s great to have all three of you on the show.
Bill Newman: Thanks, Dave.
Irene Jerome: Thank you.
Miller: So, Bill Newman first. What kind of work have you done at Top Ranch over the years on this private land to manage fire risk?
Newman: We’ve done extensive pre-commercial standing projects, juniper removal projects. We’ve built several miles of fire break just inside of our line fence with the government properties and just try to maintain a year-round awareness of fire and fire danger.
Miller: So can you describe the difference between, at this point, your side of that property line and the federal land on the other?
Newman: Well, it’s a very stark difference. The fuel loads are all hundreds of times higher on the government side of the fence and the down and dead stuff that’s there, the juniper that’s there, the years and years of grass growth and the duff that’s left behind with the pines and the juniper and the fir. It’s just a tremendous fuel load.
Miller: Irene Jerome, I mentioned that you’ve been a Firewise coordinator for a while. Now, can you remind us what this program is–what that means?
Jerome: Well, yeah, the Firewise program?
Miller: That’s right.
Jerome: Yes. It’s been around quite a long time. It’s sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association and then it’s supported by the Bureau of Land Management who James works for, the US Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Forestry. And it’s about getting landowners to understand what makes their homes at risk from wildfire and then about forming community, basically making us responsible for our own homes to be protected if a wildfire should show up.
Miller: Why did you suggest that this particular part of Northwestern Grant County become a Firewise community?
Jerome: Because when I took the contract with the county to become the Firewise coordinator, they contacted me frequently and said we have this horrible fuel mess on the federal side and we need to get that cleaned up. And I suggested to them that if they formed a Firewise community, which is informal, but it’s enough structure that you have something that the government agencies recognize, that would give them influence. And maybe then the government would come in and clean up their side of the fence.
Miller: James Osborne, does it work like that? Do you pay more attention, whether you’re talking about the BLM in your case, or the forest service or state agencies for that matter – do you listen a little bit harder when folks come together in this way and themselves form a Firewise community?
James Osborne: Well, good afternoon. I’d say yes, in the form of collaboration, in partnership with Grant County, other counties obviously across the West work with their Firewise communities as well. And so it’s the ability to partner and work on projects to try to reduce risk across that landscape and reduce risk to those private communities that live out in the wildland-urban interface. So, yeah, it’s a partnership effort.
Miller: As we heard, Bill Newman said that there was a stark difference in orders of magnitude between the fuel load on the ranch side of the property line and the federal side. I understand it’s not unusual for private landowners to say to the BLM or the Forest Service, “Hey, please cut down some of the trees on your side of the fence. We’re afraid of the fire spreading.” What has been different about this ask?
Osborne: Well, I’d say for this ask, obviously the community was all in alignment and then working with Irene from Grant County and they reached out to us and we formed quite a few different conversations, not only with the BLM but with the Forest Service to see what the needs and the asks and those sort of things were from Top Road. And then also to look and see where we could come together based on our land allocations of what we could actually do out in those areas to help out and to basically get that ask answered. And so that was some of the stuff that we had to look at in terms of where and how and what we could do on the landscape just based on ecosystems, wildlife, those sort of things that are out there.
Miller: Bill Newman, what kinds of interactions had you had personally
with federal land managers with respect to fire before you started on this particular project? I’m curious what you came to this project with, in terms of expectations and experience?
Newman: Well, we’ve been a very active partner with all of the agencies out here. I mean, wildfire is our greatest risk that we have here year-round. Every part of the world has its catastrophes to deal with–hurricanes, tornadoes, whatever. Ours is wildfire. And we’re blessed with a lot of equipment. We keep a dozer loaded around the clock during the fire season and we have our own lookout up here and I’m always there if there’s any chance of a lightning strike whatsoever. And quite often, we’re, we’re the first or one of the first pieces of equipment to respond to any of these fires even on the federal properties. And we work hand in hand with our Oregon Department of Forest Street to make that happen.
All the guys and gals that we’ve had interaction with all these agencies have just been amazing. And I’ve got to tell you, I’m just blown away at the vast number of people that it has taken to make this come about, I mean, beyond my farthest expectations. And to be honest with you, it is ridiculous that these people have to jump through all the hoops that they have to jump through to make these projects happen. The red tape that’s involved is just absolutely unbelievable.
Miller: How did you address, James Osborne, the cultural challenges that we’re talking about? We’re talking about a lot of things here, but Bill Newman, among other things, is talking about some kind of outrage at regulations. What did you see as the cultural challenges that you had to bridge as a part of this collaboration?
Osborne: Well, I’d say for myself and for the BLM and obviously Grant County, really, it was about building trust, right? And then showing up and sitting in Bill’s living room with all the other folks in the community and having open and honest conversations about potential timelines, the red tape that Bill alludes to, which is the National Environmental Policy Act, which is NEPA, the acronym we use in terms of any land disturbance that we would do on a project has to go through that process. And that process takes time. It’s public land. So folks across the country get to have a say in that even if they don’t live adjacent, like Bill does.
We had honest, open conversation about what we could do, what those timelines would be. The forest service was in the room, us and them hand-in-hand in federal agencies along with the Oregon Department of Forestry. And we were really honest and really deliberate about BLM and BLM’s workload and then also with the Forest Service’s workload, of us and them not going separately but going together and not allowing things to affect one agency or another. Timeline-wise that wouldn’t then affect Bill and the project, right? And the other folks in the community. And so it was just a lot of conversation about being open about where we are at. What are the challenges that are ahead of us? What are the positives ahead of us that we could really build that trust and understanding. Sharing phone numbers to where Bill could call me after hours and ask some questions and vice versa with Irene and just really trying to develop those relationships. So that it was built off honesty, trust and integrity.
That was really the way I went at it to engage those folks out at Top Road and to let them know that I’m a real person and then care about the project and be able to work together in the future to make things better. So that was kind of the way I went about it with the folks that work for me here at the BLM.
Miller: Irene, what do you see as the value of actually having folks sit down together? [Laughter] I asked this question when the four of us are spread to the Oregon winds right now. We’re not in the same room but for a lot of this, you all were in the same rooms, in the same living rooms. What do you think that meant?
Jerome: Well, it’s essential. It’s about building community, it’s about building trust. We had wonderful meals. If you want a good meal, go up to the Top Road ladies. [Laughter] They’re fabulous cooks. And we shared the conversation of what each party’s issues were. The federal government, as James just said,they’re burdened with huge policy requirements and they’re slow. In the meantime, Top Road residents like Bill and Nita, they’re at risk and it’s a real risk of wildfire.
And so it’s having those conversations, eating together, discussing it, looking at things on the ground. And we’ve formed an incredible partnership and it’s some of the most rewarding work I’ve done in my career.
Miller: Bill, what have you been surprised by, if anything, throughout this process?
Newman: The biggest surprise to me was the level of red tape that they had to go through on so many different layers that I would have never even anticipated. And it’s just absolutely mind boggling, Dave. It really is. The common person out here has no idea what these guys and gals go through and they knew the need the minute they saw it. There was no question about the need and the immediate danger that we’re all in out here, but their hands were tied just the same as mine. They had to go through all these different processes to make it all happen and they have all worked tirelessly at it and we’ve got so many good people involved with all this project, and ODF doesn’t get near enough mention in all this either. I mean, they’ve been right here hand-in-hand with us through the whole thing and offering their support and their help in any way they could. It’s just been an amazing process.
Miller: Irene, I feel like I have to mention the numbers here. We’re talking about some collaborative success on this fire break. That’s something like 350 acres on the federal side of that property line. But according to reports, I’ve seen millions of acres need to be treated regularly. The scale is staggering. How do you reckon with the size of the problem right now?
Jerome: Oh, Dave, that’s the million dollar question. The scope and the scale of the wildfire issue we have in the West, not just Oregon or Eastern Oregon is staggering. But I guess we do it like you eat the elephant, one bite at a time till we get better at it.
We have to continue. These forests require active management and that’s often very difficult for some of the public that James was talking about accepting they want to leave it to be natural. But we’ve got people everywhere living in these ecosystems and at one time, fire was a very integral part of that ecosystem. And we’ve removed that for various reasons. And we have to get back to active management and it would be on many different levels – through forest management and forest products, industry, through landowners through helping recreationists understand. It’s truly a wicked problem.
Miller: Irene, James and Bill…
Newman: Dave, may I add something?
Miller: Oh, please Bill. Last word.
Newman: The other big problem that I see is the only way we’re going to manage these lands even after we go through and do our pre-commercial fins and take out the junipers, people don’t understand. There’s literally millions of little tiny juniper seedlings just waiting for the chance to grow and take off. When we take all this other vegetation away, they’re just sitting there waiting and they just take off like crazy. The only way that we can manage the number of acres that need to be managed is with prescribed fire. And myself here, as a ranch manager, it’s just nearly impossible for me to control and maintain those types of controlled burns that need to take place.
One of the other things that we really need to address, we need to make it somehow better for the state agencies to be able to come out and assist landowners in doing these controlled burns. That would make a huge difference in and of itself.
Miller: That is an issue that we will be talking about more in the future.
Bill Newman, James Osborne and Irene Jerome, thanks very much.
All: Thank you.
Miller: Bill Newman is the manager of Top Ranch outside of Monument. Irene Jerome is a semi-retired Grant County Firewise coordinator. James Osborne is fire management officer for the Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management. They talked to us about a collaboration between landowners and government officials in Grant County to reduce wildfire risk.
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