A prescribed fire is planned this week for woods near Sunriver and La Pine.

Firefighters plan to burn as many as 266 acres in the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest, about 13 miles southwest of Sunriver and 11 miles northwest of La Pine, said Lauren Miller, a fire planner for the Deschutes National Forest.

If the weather cooperates, fires today, Wednesday and Thursday may put up smoke plumes visible from the Wild River, Fall River Estates and Ponderosa Estates subdivisions.

While the fires will be about 25 miles from Bend, smoke could be on the horizon.

“There definitely could be something seen from Bend,” she said.

The smoke won’t be as dramatic as a prescribed fire on April 23 just south of Bend. That 213-acre fire put up smoke visible from much of town and prompted numerous calls to 911.

In mid-May, firefighters burned about 382 acres in the experimental forest. The fires this week are part of the same research project. Miller said they’ll likely be some of the last prescribed fires this spring in Central Oregon.

While the fires south of Bend are planned, a blaze burning along the Deschutes River far downstream is a wildfire.

The 3,300-acre Gordon Butte Fire started Saturday, and high winds Sunday pushed the fire from the east to the west side of the river, said Lisa Clark, spokeswoman for the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville. As of Monday evening, the fire was 50 percent contained and full containment was expected by Wednesday night. The fire is burning halfway between Wasco and Dufur, between river miles four and 10.

“There really are not many cities near there,” she said. “Access is definitely a challenge.”

The lower Deschutes River is still open to boating despite the fire burning on both banks south of its confluence with the Columbia River.

The fire, which is spreading through sagebrush and grassland in the Deschutes River canyon, is on a mix of land overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and private land. The BLM has closed land in and near the burn area to camping.

The fire is threatening the Harris Ranch historic site, Clark said. Abandoned in the early 1900s, the water tower at the old ranch is a landmark for boaters.

Investigators said the fire is human-caused although they have yet to determine the specific cause, Clark said.

About 80 firefighters with the BLM and U.S. Forest Service, with four fire engines and a helicopter, are on the fire, Clark said. The North Sherman County Rural Fire Protection District is also fighting the fire on private land.

The fire started on the first day of BLM fire restrictions along the Lower Deschutes River. On Saturday, the agency implemented a ban on campfires and grills on the river, as well as the John Day River and portions of the Crooked River. White gas or propane stoves are still permitted, as is smoking as long as it is in a closed vehicle or in a boat on the water.

Campfires and grills are still OK in the La Pine Fire District, although the district Monday closed residential debris burning for the remainder of wildfire season. The district will likely allow debris burning again in late September or early October. Campfires must be in established fire rings, and the district requires campers to have a bucket of water and a shovel on hand.