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West Bend prescribed‑fire effort credited with helping agencies expand mitigation while limiting public complaints
Summary
Deschutes National Forest burns in the West Bend area in 2024–25 increased treated acres and — with a community response plan and close interagency coordination — produced mostly incidents rather than sustained intrusions, minimizing public complaints, officials said.
Federal and state forecasters and public‑health officials described the West Bend operations as a model for interagency coordination that allowed increased mitigation near communities while limiting adverse public impacts. Pete Parsons (ODF smoke management meteorologist) and Trevor Miller (Deschutes National Forest) highlighted coordinated forecasting, outreach and community response planning as key successes. Parsons said the West Bend team "picked fantastic weather patterns" and credited the community response plan for minimizing complaints.
Trevor Miller reported the Deschutes had about 3,500 acres of underburning this spring across 27 operations; roughly 700 acres were in the West Bend footprint. He said two years of pilot and follow‑up work yielded roughly the same acreage the Forest Service achieved in the prior decade, noting that "we've essentially achieved the same acreage amount as, you know, almost a decade of burning prior." The committee discussed how careful pre‑season coordination, localized forecasting and community outreach (including county public‑health participation and joint press messaging) were important for acceptance.
Pete Parsons and Christina Clemens emphasized that most spring smoke incidents are overnight smoldering originating in drainages that are difficult to avoid; the goal is mitigation with manageable short‑term impacts. Bend experienced a 24‑hour intrusion tied to overnight smoldering on June 3, and the city’s alerting and community response plan limited public complaints. Gabriela Goldfarb (OHA) said the West Bend example shows how public‑health partners and local outreach can be resourced to make mitigation feasible near population centers.
Next steps discussed by the committee include developing critical‑pathway documentation (what partners must have in place before replicating West Bend), regional air‑monitoring analysis from EPA’s mobile lab, and a planned fall workshop to capture lessons learned and create a repeatable model for other communities.
