As Sisters Country enters the season of spring burning, the specter of the destruction of the mountain town of Paradise, California, looms like a pall of wildfire smoke over the community.
While Sisters is well-schooled in the terrible effects of massive wildfire, the community is better prepared than many to face the threat. That is, in large part, thanks to a long campaign of thinning and prescribed burning around vulnerable parts of Sisters Country to build resilience and to give firefighters a chance to make a stand.
Prescribed burning mimics the historical role of fire in the ponderosa pine forests of Sisters Country, cleaning out underbrush and small growth that chokes overgrown forests, making them less healthy and fueling explosive wildfires.