JOHN DAY, Oregon — Normally, late summer is peak wildfire season in the high country of eastern Oregon. But as Rob Klavins navigated through grass, brush and pine trees on the Malheur National Forest on a September morning, his boots sank into the mud with a squelch.
“If a lightning strike hit in here, I don’t think anything would catch fire,” Klavins, the northeast Oregon field coordinator for Oregon Wild, said.
Looks can be deceiving in Oregon’s forests. Lush, green landscapes are sometimes at as much risk for fire as open areas where trees have been spaced out to slow its spread, forest managers say. Yet, a forest “destroyed” by fire and primed to burn again, in one person’s view, might be a wild area soon to be reborn and best left to recover naturally, according to another.
For the Forest Service, making the right decision affects homeowners, farmers and businesses that border forests or rely on them for a living. And the job isn’t becoming any easier as the climate warms and and forest management continues to prove divisive.
