TVF&R Partners with Metro and THPRD on Controlled Burn

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On Thursday, September 29th from 10am-6pm, fire crews will assist with a prescribed burn at Metro's Cooper Mountain Nature Park located at 18892 SW Kemmer Road in Beaverton.

The use of controlled burns is an important tool for fuel reduction, mitigating non-native and invasive plant growth, improving wildlife habitat, restoring natural areas, recycling nutrients back into the soil, controlling pest problems and improving access for tree planting or natural regeneration.

In addition to the environmental benefits, the burn will reduce field brush that poses a safety risk in a wildland-urban interface area and will provide firefighters with valuable brush fire training.

 Safety measures will be used to keep the fire from spreading beyond the targeted sites, including tilling sections of the soil along the perimeter of the burn area and using a technique called blacklining which involves a preliminary burn around the borders of the controlled burn location.  

The 231-acre Cooper Mountain Nature Park, located on the southern edge of Beaverton, is home to several unique and varied habitat types including mixed conifer forests, perched wetlands and rare oak woodlands. When Metro first protected portions of Cooper Mountain in 1997, years of logging, and other human activities had degraded the wildlife habitat and threatened the health of native species in the area.

Since then, Metro staff and volunteers have planted 80,000 native trees and shrubs, seeded native forbs and grasses, removed invasive plants like scotch broom, and performed a series of prescribed burns to enhance oak and upland prairie habitat.

Republished with permission of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue. View original article here.



Author:Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue