The Umatilla National Forest in the Pacific Northwest wants to thin, treat, and reintroduce prescribed fire across roughly 40,000 acres of the North Fork John Day Ranger District to reduce wildfire risk and restore huckleberry habitat through the 54 North Fuels Reduction and Huckleberry Restoration Project. Comments will be accepted through September 25, 2026.
The 54 North Project would thin overstocked stands, treat hazardous fuels, and use prescribed fire across the planning area to reduce the risk of the kind of large, uncontrolled wildfire that has repeatedly hit the Blue Mountains. It relies on roughly 156 miles of the district's existing road network to do it safely and efficiently, proof that a working road system and a healthy, fire-resilient forest go hand in hand.
It's also the cheaper option. The Forest Service spent $2.7 billion fighting fires in 2023 alone, and research on actual agency treatment data shows every dollar spent on fuel treatments in the Pacific Northwest returns $5 to $6 in avoided firefighting costs, with landscape-scale projects like this one delivering the strongest returns. And more than half the project area, roughly 24,000 acres, is managed specifically as wildlife habitat, with another 4,500-plus acres of big game winter range. Wildlife and huckleberry can recover from a low-intensity managed fire; they don't recover the same way from the high-severity fire that decades of untreated fuel eventually produces.
The Forest Service is currently updating the land management plan that oversees this area of forest and this proposal is also another step in the right direction. Submit a comment in support of active forest management to keep our public lands healthy and safe.
