Columbia Gorge News: Burning after Burdoin

LYLE — A few miles up Centerville Highway and, in some places, mere feet from where the Burdoin Fire spotted and burned east of the Klickitat River just months ago, restorative, healthy flames swept across about 13 acres of land last Wednesday.

For the better part of this year, Bill and Rene Weiler, along with several neighbors near Oliver Point, have been trying to organize a prescribed burn. When the Burdoin Fire reached the east side of Alder Springs Road and threatened to crawl up a valley north of their property, the Weilers thought they were too late. Luckily, firefighters protected their log cabin, and a local nonprofit — Mt. Adams Resource Stewards (MARS) — conducted the burn at no cost.

“I was just so incredibly surprised and pleased that there was this group that was out there doing prescribed burns,” Bill said. “This is what we need.”

MARS started facilitating prescribed burns in 2022 and has incrementally conducted more every year since, treating 272 acres this spring and fall alone. Solidified as a regional leader in the practice, Washington’s Department of Natural Resources confirmed, its program has two core goals: Put more fire on the ground, and recover a knowledge base lost through the longstanding paradigm of fire suppression.