What are your highest priorities
looking forward into 2015?
For me, it is full implementation of
the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Resto-
ration Strateg y: from the standpoint of
making our planning process go quicker,
be more comprehensive, and looking
at whole landscapes rather than simple
stands.
What is one of your successes?
When I look back at the 2012 fire
season and overlay the fire perimeters
with where we had completed fuels
reduction and vegetation restoration
treatments, you can easily see the impact
of these treatments on the fires them-
selves and their influence on the abil-
ity of firefighters to manage those fires.
For example, outside of Wenatchee in
the Mission Creek area, a fire burned
over units I had worked on in the 1990s
where we tried applying concepts of spa-
tial arrangement of trees and reduction
of fuels. e (2014) fire there burned as
a little surface fire bumped into roads
and stopped. Firefighters commented
how easy and safe it was to manage the
fire in this area. ere are several of these
examples that emerge in this map from
around the forest, and it reinforces that
we need to do more restoration to influ-
ence future fire on the forest.
*Editor's Note: Special thanks to Richy
Harrod and the Okanogan-Wenatchee
National Forest for their hard work this
past summer and for participating in our
interview.
As we consider how wildfires and wildlands are managed in our region, it's
important to understand current forest management practices and also how those
practices are evolving. Seeking to better understand how officers from one national
forest in Washington view wildfire and forest management, and how those views
might be changing, Jen Watkins from Conservation Northwest interviewed Richy
Harrod, deputy fire staff officer with the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, in
December 2014. Harrod has been with the Forest Service for 24 years.
How have you seen the management of fire changing during your career?
e change has been huge. e change has been from the standpoint of seeing
fire largely as something that needed to be put out, to now viewing fire as a process
that we might manage. is evolution is reflected not only in individuals, but in
policy for our agency.
Now that the smoke has settled, what impressions remain with you?
is past fire season was a difficult one at best. ere was so much fire happening
so quickly on the forest and affecting so many people. I'm thankful that the weather
changed when it did. I think this past season was a sign of what is to come in the
future. ese kinds of fire seasons will become more of the norm with changing
climate and growth of the urban interface. We can expect more fire, longer seasons,
and more sorts of situations where fire and people mix.
What are the biggest challenges to restoring forests and natural fire cycles?
e real challenge is that doing forest restoration is expensive, not all work can
pay for itself. And the value of much of the material that we need to remove is low.
It's how do we do the work at the scale that we need to do it at, and be able to afford
to do it?
the influence of restoration
hoW Do WE MANAGE WIlDFIrES ToDAy?
AN INTErVIEW WITh rIChy hArroD
Aftermath of the Chiwaukum Complex
Wildfire in the Okanogan-Wenatchee
National Forest. As time passes, this
blackened forest will likely grow back
healthier than it was before, with rich
habitat for wildlife big and small. Photo: CWMP
Forest Service road near the edge of the
Carlton Complex Fire. Photo: Chase Gunnell
Jen Watkins
Conservation associate,
jen@conservationnw.org
"The change has been from the standpoint of seeing fire largely
as something that needed to be put out, to now viewing fire as a
process that we might manage."
8 Winter 2015 conservationnw.org
Wildfire today
