Archie Creek Fire Recovery Continues With Removal Of Logs & Ash
Work is continuing to progress in the Archie Creek Fire Area that burned 131,542 acres last year and burning over 100 homes. The State of Oregon is working with federal, state, and local partners for cleanup of the wildfires that burned throughout the state in 2020. The Oregon Departments of Transportation, Environmental Quality, and Emergency Management are leading the effort. The group is called the Oregon Wildfire Debris Management Task Force. The initial work completed in Phase 1 immediately after the fire was felling of imminently dangerous trees that either had entered the right-of-way (ROW) or were imminently a danger to fall and enter the ROW for instance on Highway 138 East. The task force is now in phase 2 which involves the removal of hazard trees. The next step is coming back to remove the trees and slash that were left felled from phase 1 and moving them to log deck areas. "The slash will be chipped and the logs decked up for removal by the landowners," Task Force Public Information Officer Kevin Alvarado said. "We are also currently tagging trees along the portion of the 138E Corridor affected by the wildfires to be felled and removed. The focus is on dead or dying trees that have the potential to enter the ROW (about 1 ½- 2 full tree lengths from the highway)." The vast majority of the land affected by the wildfire was public and managed by either the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or US Forest Service but a portion of the total affected area was private property. There is a separate two-step process for those who lost their homes in the fire. The first step is clearing hazardous waste from affected properties and that process is largely complete. Step two is removing hazardous trees, ash, and debris. Landowners sign a form to allow the state to do an assessment and clean up work. "They take out any metal, ash, slash on properties, remove concrete pads and dispose of that," Alvarado said. "(We're) mobilizing those crews now for that (Step two) work." More info on that program including how to enroll can be found at their website at https://wildfire.oregon.gov/cleanup The work will be done in batches as that's the safest and most efficient way to do the work. "Proper sediment control, runoff control, is very much a concern of the group, there are environmental resources to do this as clean and safe as possible." Alvarado said.