Pre-season scouting up in smoke.

[Cutter]

Well the Booth fire has just about covered all the ground I did while scouting in July. Anyone else in the same boat? This is bad, but with amount of fuel on the ground there it is not surprising. We actually had 2 old ponderosa pines fall within 50 yards of us. Waiting as seeing.

[Jeremy]

Jefferson wilderness is closed until further notice too "The Willamette National Forest has closed the entire Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area west of the Cascade ridge line due to potential danger from the Booth and Bear Butte Fires" http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/willamette/n...effclosed.html

[tailchaser]

I'm packing into the wilderness on the snake river unit and the current fire is within 3 miles of where we were going camp. So I'm watching intently on how much it's going to burn. Thankfully it's under control supposedly and was mostly grassy area. But we'll see what it did.

tc

[Born to Fish]

My suggestion for this fall's hunting season in the Pacific Northwest is to have alternative plans "B" and "C" in the event that the wildland fire situation doesn't improve.

For the early hunting seasons, the odds don't look good for fire season-ending events until some time in October at best. These season ending events are the on-set of weather changes [sustained rain, snow, etc.] that lower the probability of new ignitions and moderate ongoing fire activity.

Then too, many areas in OR, WA, ID, and MT show energy release components [ERC's] way above historic documented extremes. ERC's are an indication of the potential severity of a fire based on fuel moistures. What it comes down to is that if people are careless in the woods, or we experience dry lightning under these conditions, we have the stage set for more large fire activity throughout the area.

My plans A, B, and C for this year's hunting season are: Fishing, Fishing, and Fishing. Hope that your plans work out - will be looking forward to your success stories.

[nitrobass]

Its pretty smoky where I'm headed too but most of that is from the bear butte fire blowing east.


The season is so close I can taste it!!!!

[Old Coot]

These fires are burning where I spent a lot of my teen years backpacking. I'm really sorry to see the area go up in smoke.

On the other hand...what incredible deer and elk habitat waits about 4-5 years down the road!

[Jeremy]

All area south of Marion Forks to Santiam Junction and East of Hwy 22 is now also closed. The High Cascades unit keeps getting smaller. Talked with the ranger district today and they said the closure may extend up to the Marion/Linn county line before the weekend. http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/willamette/n...estricted.html