Prescribed burns planned near Crooked River Ranch

The Bureau of Land Management plans to ignite wood piles located across 627 acres of land near Crooked River Ranch starting on Monday, pending favorable weather conditions. The piles are concentrations of leftover material from thinning operations.

Ignitions may be spread out over several weeks depending on the weather, the bureau said in a statement.

Wood may smolder, burn and produce smoke for several days after ignition. The project area will be marked with signs, and no road closures or delays are anticipated.

The piles of woody debris are within the Steelhead Falls Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project area, located close to Crooked River Ranch. The project began in 2019 and is an ongoing effort to reduce wildfire risk in the wildland urban interface by creating defensible space around houses.

The thinning work is designed to restore and maintain the shrub steppe and old-growth juniper ecosystem. For more information about thinning and pile burning near Crooked River Ranch, call the BLM Prineville District at 541-416-6700.