Yelling Fire in a Crowded Forest: Rooster Rock spares Skyline but highlights the danger of homes in the forest
The Rooster Rock fire burns in Skyline Forest. Photo: Kate Lighthall.
When the Rooster Rock fire ballooned from a few acres early last week to more than 3,000 acres in a matter of hours, it threatened more than just homes and trees south of Sisters. The fire, which grew to more than 6,000 acres before firefighters got the upper hand on the blaze, threatened to turn the dream of a community forest outside Bend into a moonscape of smoldering ashes when it started burning into the Bull Springs Tree Farm. The 33,000-acre nursery, known to Central Oregonians as Skyline Forest, is one of the longest running conservation efforts in Bend and one that seemed to be growing closer to realization before flames from the Rooster Rock blaze started licking at the edge of Skyline property, threatening to consume a large portion of the forest as state and federal fire fighters struggled to contain the fast-growing conflagration.
Crews eventually brought the wildfire under control late last week and full containment was expected by Tuesday evening (after this issue went to press). But even as the lines closed around the Rooster Rock blaze, questions linger about the wisdom of encouraging more development in the wildfire zones around Central Oregon. It’s an issue that arises every fire season in Central Oregon as homeowners are seemingly asked annually to pack their belongings and flee the oncoming flames in places like Sunriver, Black Butte Ranch and even Bend (this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Awbrey Hall fire west of Bend that torched more than 20 homes before it was corralled.) But it’s a particularly relevant question with regard to the Rooster Rock fire because of its proximity to Skyline Forest where as many as 280 homes have been mulled in a development deal among the property’s owner, Fidelity National Timber Resources, conservation groups and lawmakers.
At this point it’s not clear how or if the fire might impact Fidelity’s future development plans for the site. The fire management team has yet to inventory how much of the Fidelity property was involved in the Rooster Rock fire, the majority of which burned on private lands – roughly 4,800 of the more than 6,000 total acres by the Forest Service’s count. However, several people with knowledge of the fire said that it burned onto Fidelity’s Skyline property before changing course. Most importantly, it reportedly burned onto a portion of the land that was marked for development, which included a mix of homes and open space under the deal struck among Fidelity and several other stakeholders, including the Deschutes Basin Land Trust, Central Oregon Landwatch and lawmakers.
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