Matt recounts how he and Donna realized just how immediate the fire hazards were after years of drought and less than vigorous fuels management on their own land. "That first year in mid August, as we were driving into town we looked back at the road behind us and saw a curl of smoke." They called it in to the authorities. Neighbors came out to help cut a fire break. "A helicopter with a water bucket arrived within half an hour to douse the blaze. That was a beginning signal to us that there is a history of fire here." They have taken that lesson to heart.

There are 28 million acres of forest in Oregon. The Oregon Department of Forestry protects 15.8 million of those forested acres against wildfire including private, state and local government land. Local fire districts typically focus on protecting residences and structures.

During the 2002 fire season, the Oregon Department of Forestry reports it spent over $44.5 million fighting fires that burned nearly 100,000 acres of private, state and municipal land. It was an all-time high for the Oregon Department of Forestry. The Biscuit Fire, which burned nearly 500,000 acres of mostly federal forest, made 2002 a record-breaking year for fires in Oregon.

As Matt describes them, the BLM lands around his property are ripe for wildfire. "Many stands are overstocked, containing over 400 stems per acre," reports Matt. "The native Ponderosa pine has been invaded by fir trees that grow up under the shade of the pines." These are trees that would be regularly cleared out if the Applegate Valley had been experiencing the more typical fire cycles with which the ecosystem evolved.

Lyle Defrees' Woodland
Wildfire Checklist:

1. Determine which agency will have initial attack responsibility for fire on your land.
2. Know how to report a fire.
3. Have a good map available so you can give a good location description, including legal description.
4. Consider firefighting training for yourself, your family, or others who might be able to help if you are the first on the scene.
5. Be acquainted with the Oregon Department of Forestry Service Forester to facilitate their services after a fire.
6. Do what you can to remove the fuels on your land (Service Foresters & Extension Foresters are good resource people for determining what is feasible).
7. Roads can be located and maintained to become fire lanes in case of fire.
8. Have good fire equipment ready to respond (can be as simple as an axe, shovel and water container).

Several years ago the Epsteins developed stewardship agreement with the BLM. Together with BLM land managers, they defined approximately 10 acres of BLM land around the property for fuels reduction treatments. Within the stewardship agreement area the Epsteins are allowed to remove brush and trees under six inches in diameter to reduce fire hazard. "We are getting to take out a lot of fuel material and reduce the fire ladders," says Matt. This partnership with the BLM gives the Epsteins a measure of security. Fuels surrounding their property are reduced so that a wildfire is likely to lay down on the ground and burn with less intensity than it would if the lands remained overstocked.

Matt and Donna use what they have thinned from BLM land for firewood and poles. By collaborating with a private landowner the agreement has allowed the BLM to make the urban/wildland interface safer. The BLM uses the Epsteins' land to educate local residents and land managers about fuels reduction, another aspect of the stewardship agreement.

Over the years Matt has hosted Master Woodland Manager classes and watershed council educational events.
Matt reports the relationship with the BLM is a good one. "I have developed a very cooperative
relationship with them." The arrangement is far from a blank check, Matt maintains. BLM managers monitor activities every six months. "There is a fair amount of oversight in the process." Partnerships between private landowners and federal land management agencies are not always this positive. Especially not when your land, timber and structures are at risk of burning.

Lyle Defrees learned about the challenges of working with federal neighbors the hard way, while coordinating fire suppression on his land during the 1986 Huckleberry Fire. Around 470 acres of his Sumpter Valley forest acreage in Baker County was blackened completely. The Huckleberry Fire started on August 30 1986. Three days later it escaped the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest and crossed over the ranch's western boundary. Lyle remembers his dismay as he watched the Forest Service fire crew arrive without equipment. "There were two bus loads of thirty or so men that were unloaded from their busses with no equipment. Their leaders loaded them back on the busses, which left no one but my crew on the fire line."
Witnessing this apparent lapse of management was the reason Lyle took it upon himself to check the fire lines. "Had I not been present I have no doubt that the ranch would have lost another 500 acres of timber plus many acres of private neighbors' timber."

They have experienced other fires during the Defrees family's nearly 100 years of managing the land. Still, the
Huckleberry Fire was the largest and most destructive. In its aftermath, Lyle created what he calls a "checklist" to remind himself what should be done to prepare for a possible wildfire. A second checklist details what to do when a fire strikes.

Lyle has had more positive encounters with the Forest Service since the fire. Both he and Matt Epstein feel strongly that partnerships with neighboring landowners are best if developed before a fire strikes. Technical assistance is available as well says Lyle, who became a Master Woodland Manager after the 1986 fire. He recommends forest landowners call the Department of Forestry, the Extension Service and the Oregon Small Woodlands Association for guidance.

Both Lyle and Matt say there is always more to learn. Matt remembers one such learning experience. "At one of the fuels reduction education events we hosted, one of the local fire management specialists mentioned we had done a really fine job, except for the 'pile of kindling on top of the house.'" The Epsteins have subsequently replaced the wood shakes with a fire-resistant composition shingle roof. They were glad they did. In July of 2002, the Squires Peak Fire was coming over the ridge behind their home when Matt called it in. The local fire chief knew about the thinning work that had been done and the recent roof replacement. That was when Matt heard the five most reassuring words a landowner can hear when a wildfire is coming his way - "This is a defendable property."