News Release

Prescribed Burns Planned for Crater Lake National Park

Date: October 31, 2018
Contact: Ed Waldron, [phone]

Crater Lake National Park will conduct a prescribed pile burning along North Entrance Road and Highway 62 West in the coming days. Fire crews will ignite the piles when conditions such as weather, fuel moisture, and smoke dispersal are favorable.  

The North Entrance Road pile burn unit is approximately 43 acres in size and is located along North Entrance Road.  Park fire management staff will burn piles of woody debris that were created this summer in the fuel break on the west side of the road. Fire managers currently expect to implement the project starting as early as Wednesday, October 31^st. Ignitions will take approximately three days to complete. North Entrance Road is currently closed for the season.

An additional unit, located along both sides of Highway 62 West, will be burned in the upcoming days or weeks once the area receives more rain or snow.   Approximately 10 acres of roughly 750 piles are in this unit. These piles were created from the construction of fuel breaks along Highway 62.

The National Park Service uses prescribed fire as a tool to help reduce the intensity and spread of future fires by removing unnatural accumulations of forest fuels resulting from fire suppression. The re-introduction of periodic, low intensity burning will improve forest health by reducing the amount of dead woody debris that can lead to larger, more intense fires during hot summer conditions. Fire encourages establishment and re-growth of grasses, shrubs, and trees and increases habitat diversity for wildlife.

Weather and fire behavior will be monitored before, during, and after the burns to ensure desired outcomes. Smoke production will be managed using forecasts and monitoring. Firefighters will patrol and monitor the prescribed fires until they are completely out. 

All currently open park roads and trails are expected to remain accessible during the burn. Motorists should watch for signs in the vicinity of the fire indicating potentially smoky conditions, and then proceed cautiously with their vehicle headlights on.                                                  

For additional information on these burns, please call Crater Lake National Park’s Fire Management Officer at 541-594-3062.