Letter: ODF did a great job this fire season

Published 10:00 am Tuesday, October 27, 2020

To the Editor:

I would like to say that the men and women of our Oregon Department of Forestry have done a great job this fire season. I run a small ranch that shares several miles of boundary with national forest and Bureau of Land Management. The fire danger here is the worst that I have experienced. When I first moved here, all of the opinions that I heard concerning ODF were negative. Instead of listening to the negativity, I started reaching out, asking for advice on how to improve our situation and to work with ODF.

In this process, I have been extremely impressed with all the ODF employees that I have had interaction with. Our area is extremely prone to dry lightning strikes. So far, between the efforts of ODF and myself, we have been able to hold the damages to a bare minimum, with the exception of the Sunflower Flats Fire. That one was a total fiasco, compliments of the feds. I am not saying that all federal employees are the same. Since that experience on Sunflower Flats, I have worked with some of the feds on the Gilman Flats Fire. They had a completely different philosophy than what I saw on the Sunflower Flats Fire.

I also want to take a minute to speak to our fellow citizens, who expect everyone else to protect their lives and property. They do none of the work for themselves. It doesn’t take long, when you are riding through our beautiful area, to look around and see the property owners that do not clean up any of the excess fire fuels, even to the point that they don’t have a defensible perimeter around their homes. If you can’t get off of your butt to improve your own situation, why do you expect someone else to risk their lives in the middle of a fire? I just personally feel like our area would be much better off if everyone would take ownership of their situation and do their part.

Bill Newman

Monument