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Wildfire
Wildfire Summary
Wildfire History and Location in Morrow County
Morrow County, along with much of eastern Oregon has had experience with wildfires in the past several years. The prevailing easterly wind and the drought conditions, which exist off and on throughout the western U.S., have exacerbated wildfires in this region. The number of fires in Morrow County, from 1984 to 2003, ranged from 13 in 1993 to 105 in 1999 with a total of 873 fires during this time period burning more than 213,000 acres. Twenty-nine fires burned 300 acres or more during that period and of those, six were 5,000 acres or more. In July and August of 2000 the Governor signed a Determination of Emergency Conflagration Act Due to Fire in Morrow County. The fire that occurred at this time was the "Willow Creek Fire" which started at the junction of Eight Mile Road and Four Mile Canyon in Gilliam County and spread out of control to Morrow County.
Wildfire Impacts in Morrow County Regions
- The southern one-third of the County is forested with the southeast corner of the County within the Umatilla National Forest. The topography of this part of the County is rugged as it is a part of a northwest spur of the Blue Mountains. The precipitation over this higher portion of the County does support conifer forests. These conifer stands, which cover some 205,000 acres, form an almost solid cover over the ridges and slopes of this area. About one thousand acres is juniper or scrub timber. The major species of conifers are ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir and western larch. The fire protection officials in this area characterize the fuel for wildfire potential in this region as very high. There are residential developments in the forested zone, which are the Blake Ranch area and the residential development around Penland Lake and around Cutsforth Park. Although the Blake Ranch area has been incorporated into the Heppner Rural Fire Protection District, the potential for life and property loss is high in the event of a fire due to distance from rural fire protection districts for most of the area. Increasingly, people are using this area for recreational use at the County run Off-Highway-Vehicle Park and more people spend holiday time during weekends and vacation periods here. The residents and visitors to these areas are often inadequately educated or prepared for the inferno that could sweep through the brush and timber, affecting safety and destroying property in minutes.
- In the middle third of the County, precipitation is too low for tree growth without the support of irrigation. Nevertheless, the fire protection districts respond to fires in this area more than in the forested southern region. The middle region of the County is mostly dry land ranges for the pasture of cattle and dryland wheat. The fire protection districts respond to wildfires in this location as a result of a lightning strike (70 percent) and human-caused (30 percent) fires. The fires generally burn rangeland, Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields, and pastures. Heppner, Lexington, and Ione are located within this area.
- The northern third of the County contains most of the County's economic infrastructure to include the Boardman Coal-fire plant, Finley Buttes Regional Landfill, the Port of Morrow with its associated industries, Bonneville Power Administration power lines, natural gas pipelines, to name a few. The potential for wildfire in this portion of the County is less than the rest of the County for the following reasons. The farms and fields are irrigated, which means that water is available to keep the crops green and to lessen the ability of wildfire to spread and the area is more populated and contains two fire protection districts to respond to fires in the undeveloped shrub-steppe regions of the County. The ability of firefighters to protect this portion of the County is hampered, however, by the limited transportation network, which does not allow for quick coverage of the undeveloped areas of this portion of the County.
