Cow Creek Tribal Fire Management: Prevention and Response During Wildfire Season

Oregon is experiencing the most active wildfire season in recent history, and Cow Creek Tribal Fire Management is one of the many agencies helping to keep
the flames from spreading.

Since August, more than two million acres in Oregon have burned. Over half a million of those acres are part of the Big Grass complex in Malheur county and straddling over the border into Idaho. The Grasshopper Fire near the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation has burned more than 90,000 acres.

In recent weeks, Cow Creek Tribal Fire Management (CCTFM) has been a strategic partner and resource for firefighting in the region. Since late June, they have had an engine assigned to the Tiller Ranger District in the Umpqua National Forest, while also maintaining patrols of Cow Creek Umpqua Tribal lands that are at risk of wildfire. While on patrol in July, a CCTFM crew was able to quickly assist Riddle Fire Protection and Douglas Fire Protection Agency with a group of roadside vehicle fires before they spread out of control. CCTFM also responded to a fire on Reservoir Hill in Roseburg in June, underscoring an urgent need for the prescribed burn scheduled for the same area just one week later.

CCTFM has also assisted with wildfire mitigation before signs of a spark. In July, crews assessed Tribal family residences in the evacuation zones of the East Evans Creek Fire in Jackson County for defensible space. The previous month they helped US Wildland Fire Service teams with a 120-acre prescribed burn in the North Bank Habitat Management Area on the North Umpqua River. They have been deployed several times to various locations in anticipation of lightning, wind and storms.