JOHN DAY — Two ranger districts on the Malheur National Forest have prescribed burn ignitions planned for this week, forest officials announced.

Soda Bear 9C and 9G ignitions are planned to begin Wednesday, Oct. 4, with weather conditions permitting. This prescribed burn will continue throughout the week on about 405 acres on the Blue Mountain Ranger District. These units are southeast of Bear Valley along Forest Road 1619.

Wolf H ignitions are also planned for Oct. 4 with weather conditions permitting. This prescribed burn will continue throughout the week on about 712 acres on the Emigrant Creek Ranger District. This unit is located in the Wolf Creek area near Forest Service Roads 17 and 15.

The public may see and smell smoke throughout the operations and are encouraged to use caution around the area. Firefighters will continue to monitor the areas for several days after completion.

Each prescribed burn is designed to accomplish specific objectives related to increasing forest health, officials said. Prescribed burns will be conducted only under appropriate conditions to ensure firefighter and public safety. Appropriate conditions include correct temperatures, wind, fuel moisture, and smoke weather forecast. When all these criteria are met, firefighters implement, monitor, and patrol the burn to ensure the forest health and public safety goals are met.

Prescribed fire information is available to the public on a tri-forest online map. The map is labeled and color-coded to show each burn unit’s status: planned, active, or completed. Additionally, forest users can view other features including current and past-year burn units.

Daily updates can be found at https://www.facebook.com/MalheurNationalForest.