With fire season on the wane and cooler fall weather arriving across central Oregon, two national forests are moving forward with planned prescribed burns — a critical tool for reducing catastrophic wildfire risk in communities that saw firsthand how destructive this summer's fires could be.

Deschutes National Forest

Deschutes National Forest firefighters and managers announced September 25 that they plan to begin fall understory prescribed burning as early as this week, weather permitting. Up to 5,886 acres could be treated across Central Oregon, with targeted burn areas near Bend, Sisters, La Pine, Crescent, and Sunriver.

The burns are designed to reduce wildfire risk by removing accumulated vegetation and dead fuels, improving overall forest health and creating more defensible conditions around communities and homes. Understory burns clear out ladder fuels — the shrubs and small trees that can carry fire from the forest floor into the crowns of large trees — dramatically changing how a fire would behave if it reached those areas.

Ochoco National Forest

The Ochoco National Forest began fall prescribed fire operations on September 28 in the HEJ Project Area. An announcement from Central Oregon Fire Information confirmed operations commenced pending required approvals, with additional burns planned through October.

Prescribed burns on the Ochoco are part of a long-term strategy to restore fire-adapted forest ecosystems in Crook and Wheeler counties.

Smoke Management

While prescribed burns provide enormous long-term benefits, they do produce smoke that can impact nearby communities, particularly during atmospheric inversions common in fall. Firefighters coordinate closely with:

  • Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) — for air quality monitoring and smoke forecast modeling
  • Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) — for smoke dispersion forecasts

Communities near the Bend and Redmond areas should check AirNow.gov and the Oregon Smoke Information blog (oregonsmoke.org) for real-time air quality data.

Prescribed Fire in Context

The 2026 fire season offers a stark reminder of why prescribed fire matters. The Grasshopper Fire burned nearly 94,000 acres in Wasco County on the Mt. Hood National Forest — a landscape where fuel accumulation from decades of fire suppression created conditions for extreme fire behavior. Studies consistently show that areas treated with prescribed fire or mechanical fuel reduction tend to burn at lower severity and are easier to suppress when wildfires do occur.

Oregon and Washington together treat tens of thousands of acres with prescribed fire annually, though fire managers say the pace of treatment still lags well behind the pace of fuel accumulation — leaving many communities at elevated long-term risk.