Douglas Forest Protective Association

BURN PERMITS 

Residents should contact their local fire department before conducting any burning. 

The burning of logging slash requires a permit year round.  Any type of tree harvesting that requires excess debris to be burned constitutes logging slash and therefore requires a permit to burn.  To request a permit for slash burning, call DFPA at 672-6507.

In many rural areas, pile burning is a viable way to get rid of debris – tree branches, brush cuttings, needles and leaves. And with proper site preparation and forethought, people can burn this sort of debris with reasonable safety.

Many escaped debris pile burns result from incorrectly selecting or preparing a site for burning, failing to monitor the fire, not having basic fire suppression tools (like a hose and a shovel) close at hand while the pile is burning, and not extinguishing smoldering debris.

Choose a site where flames, radiant heat and airborne embers won’t set nearby vegetation on fire. A rule of thumb is to have horizontal clearance that is twice the height of the pile. This fire trail should be scraped to mineral soil to prevent the fire from traveling outside the pile. Then look at vertical clearance, which needs to be at least three times the height of the pile. A burning pile of tree branches will send visible flames several feet into the air above the pile, but the invisible heat influence will go up even higher. Make sure there are no overhanging tree branches and no power lines anywhere above the pile.

Make burn piles small. Put the smallest stuff – twigs and the smallest branches – on the bottom of the pile. This is the kindling, which will ignite quickly and burn hot and fast. Don’t put leaves, needles and bark in the kindling part of the pile. These are smoldering fuels and, with some exceptions, will retard the rapid-ignition process. Put these in an adjacent pile so they can be added to the burning pile after a vigorous heat source has been created. It is illegal to burn plastic, tires and just about anything else that isn’t from a tree or shrub.

Before burning, check with the local fire district to see whether a burning permit is required. Find out whether the county – or the state – has air quality restrictions in place and, if so, how to find out whether the day on which you want to burn is a legal burn day.

Most places in Oregon don’t allow open burning during fire season. Call the local Oregon Department of Forestry or fire protective association office to find out whether fire season is in effect.

Before striking the match, make a few final checks. First, never burn on windy days. Run a garden hose to the burn site, then add another 25-50 feet. Put on a nozzle and charge the line. Make sure you can get water all around the burn site and keep the perimeter hosed down during the burning process. Then park a shovel near to where you’ll be working. Finally, have a cell phone handy just in case you need to dial 9-1-1. Should a fire escape, the property owner may be financially responsible for damages and suppression costs.

Taking the time to plan an open burning project and equipping yourself with basic fire suppression tools before lighting the match will dramatically reduce the chance of a burn pile fire getting out of control.

PASTURE AND FIELD BURNING
Controlled pasture fires help Douglas County ranchers get rid of unwanted weed and brush growth and insects and plant diseases, thereby promoting healthy and productive livestock grazing lands.  It is also a cost effective alternative to the use of chemicals.

Burning hillsides overburdened with poison oak, blackberry bushes and other fire hazards makes Douglas County a safer place to live.  The process eliminates these fuel loads that can turn small fires into large, out of control fires.  Many wildfires in the past have been controlled in open grass fields and hillsides that had been burned periodically.