Published April 9, 2026
Taking advantage of some beneficial precipitation last week during an unusually dry spring, we were able to make some progress on controlled pile burning as part of the The Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project (AFR). Lomakatsi’s 15-person Rogue Valley Wildland Fire and Forestry hand and engine crews conducted burn operations, with additional contracted support from a Grayback Forestry, Inc. engine. Our crews carefully burned piles of small trees and shrubs from ecological thinning last year to address overly dense forest conditions on 35 acres of private land, bringing the total hand pile burn accomplishments to just over 200 acres in the project area this season.
These treatments in the wildland urban interface of Ashland build on 14,000 acres of ecological fuels reduction and forest health treatments in AFR over the past decade. This collaborative effort spans the U.S. Forest Service- Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, City of Ashland Oregon, and over 50 private land parcels, with the goal of reducing the risk of severe wildfire to communities, the City’s municipal water supply, and the ecosystem.
The pile burning last week was made possible through a cooperative agreement between Lomakatsi and the USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program with $1 million of funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This funding has supported ecological thinning and prescribed burning across approximately 700 acres of private lands within AFR to date.
We thank our crew members for their hard work and our partners for supporting this critical work to protect communities and natural resources.