Mt. Adams Resource Stewards hosts inaugural prescribed fire training in the Gorge

Prescribed fires are one tool MARS uses for the restoration of land throughout the Gorge. They ignite low-intensity fire to remove excessive shrubs and plants, known as surface fuel, that otherwise might contribute to an uncontrollable wildfire.

King stated that since the recession of glaciers, fire has been essential for the landscape due to natural lightning-ignited wildfires and indigenous burning. Part of MARS work includes counteracting a century of fire suppression, which has led to increased forest density from the buildup of dead biomass.

CGTREX is specific to the Columbia Gorge, but iterations of the program exist in other locations. TREX is a training model created through a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservatory. The program began in 2008 to increase the number of qualified, experienced individuals who can manage prescribed burns in various landscapes and communities.

Another unique aspect of CGTREX is that participants could join without a Red Card, which shows completion of a work capacity test and online classroom sessions. This U.S. government qualification allows individuals to work on a wildfire incident after receiving their Red Card, but this was waived in favor of fostering knowledge from different fire backgrounds.

“You could be learning from a structure firefighter that works in the city of Seattle, someone on a fuels crew with the Yakama Nation, or a private contractor that does regular pile burning,” King said, emphasizing the importance of collaboration for the exchange.

CGTREX taught two different types of prescribed burns: Pile burning and understory burning, also known as broadcast burning. Pile burning is a technique that burns collected piles of debris, while understory burns the understory of a landscape, removing surface fuels to reduce the risk of wildfires climbing into the canopy.

Potential burn units included land from private landowners, nonprofits, state entities and federal lands, with a final location decision based on weather, conditions and fuel. Notably, during the two-week program over an inch of precipitation rained on all units, limiting options for conducting prescribed fires.

“When it was too wet to understory burn, we were able to do some pile burning,” said Incident Commander Loretta Duke, who works as the South Zone Fire Management Officer in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

“One of the units was a progressive pile burn. We had some piles already built and as they burned we cut down dead and down material to add to those piles,” Duke said. “It’s rather labor intensive, but with a good workforce you can get quite a bit of work done.”

Towards the end of CGTREX, the land dried out for two understory burns located outside of Glenwood.

“On the last day, we were able to burn about 47 acres of mostly ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. It was a fairly low intensity fire, much lower than what you see in a wildfire,” Duke said. The unit was on land managed by Columbia Land Trust. “It was enough to achieve objectives using the correct firing patterns. It was a successful first entry, there had been fire suppression in that area for at least 50 years, if not more.”

For first-year MARS stewardship crew member Elle Luedloff, a key aspect of her learning included the hands-on experience of understory burning on the other unit near Glenwood, managed by MARS.

“My favorite part of the experience was getting to be a part of the Pine Flats burn, which was about 20 acres,” Luedloff said, noting she found an unopened applesauce on the unit. “It was burned a few years ago by MARS, so seeing the re-entry of fire that corresponds with the historical fire intervals of the area was amazing.”