Mail Tribune News - Ashland stops motor trail traffic

Ashland stops motor trail traffic

Fire dangers closes off ‘Loop’ road, Lithia way

By PAUL FATTIG

ASHLAND — Hoping to put a damper on the growing fire threat in the Ashland watershed, authorities are banning motorized traffic on Ashland Loop Road beginning Friday.

The upper trails of Lithia Park also will be closed to the public.

Forest Service Road 2060, commonly referred to as the Ashland Loop Road, will be closed to motorized traffic at the Rogue River National Forest boundary at Morton Street up to Road 2080200 at what is known as Bull Gap.

Watershed report

The Forest Service will release its final environmental impact statement for its Ashland Watershed Protection Project late next month. The project is an effort to reduce the fire hazard by removing vegetation and other means.

After the draft EIS was released last August, the agency received public comments which were considered when the final EIS was developed.

A review period will be held following the release of the final EIS prior to the record of decision expected in November.

Road 2080600 at the junction of roads 2080 and 2080600 also will be closed.

"This does not eliminate hiking, jogging, horseback riding or mountain biking at this time," said Les Robertson, acting ranger for the Ashland Ranger District. "This is strictly a motorized closure now."

The Ashland Parks and Recreation Department is also closing the hillside portion of Lithia Park to all comers at the end of the week, said department head Ken Mickelsen.

"We’re not talking about the manicured, landscaped part of the park," he stressed. "It will basically be from the upper duck pond up the hillside to Glenview Street."

Signs will be posted in the areas before the closures go into effect.

Officials are concerned that suppression of wildfires over the years has created a thick blanket of brush and trees which would go up in flames in the event of a catastrophic fire. Such a fire would threaten the municipal water supply and some 2,500 homes, officials warned.

A fire last swept through the watershed in 1959. After the smoke had cleared, 70 percent of the area burned at what the Forest Service described as a "high fire severity."

The last closure of the area because of high fire danger was in summer 1992.

The area will be patrolled and citations issued if the closure is violated.

The announcement came Wednesday as local fire officials assessed the increased fire danger in the region.

"They (fire conditions) are approaching the average maximum we normally see for a fire season," observed Tom Dorigan, a fire management officer with the Rogue River forest. "They are getting about as bad as we usually see. The scary thing there is we still probably have a good two months left in the fire season."

About 100 Forest Service personnel, 12 engines, two agency crews of 20 people each and 19 20-person contract crews from the region are now battling fires throughout the West, he said.

Although resources remain to fight local fires, there are scant resources available nationally because of fires elsewhere, he said.

While firefighters can’t do anything about lightning-caused fires, closures can help reduce human-caused blazes, Dorigan said.

"Most fires we have are from campfires," he said. "We find that if we limit motor vehicle access, we reduce campfires."

Campfires are not allowed in the areas that are being closed.

If conditions worsen, fire danger will go to fire precaution Level IV, prompting more public closures, said Dan Thorpe, Medford Unit forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry.

"The next step is not good at all — we don’t want to go there," he said, noting that the public can help avoid additional closures by continuing to cooperate with agencies when it comes to fire safety.

Because of mutual aid agreements, protection of the watershed involves firefighters from the ODF, Forest Service, Ashland Fire & Rescue, Jackson County Fire District No. 5 and other local fire departments.

"No single decision affects only one agency," explained Keith Woodley, Ashland fire chief. "What we do at the Ashland watershed, decisions we make to prevent fire starts, have a benefit throughout the whole valley, not just in Ashland.

"Should we have a major fire in the Ashland watershed, it will suck in resources from throughout the state and place burdens on other areas that also have high fire risk situations," he added. "Any preventative measures we have here benefit the state."


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