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A powerful partnership aims to save an Oregon city from wildfire. Decision makers are taking notes

By The Oregonian · May 29, 2026 · 1 min read The Oregonian ↗

One day after the controlled underburn, crews continued to manage the fire. Lomakatsi’s crews in yellow Nomex fire-retardant clothing gathered in a circle with visitors at the Ashland watershed site. Inter-Tribal Oregon Conservation Corps members, newly certified as firefighter type 2 crew members, worked at the Ashland watershed site. Forestland that has not been managed by controlled burns has an understory of wooded materials that can spread a fire. One day after the controlled underburn, fire and natural resource experts from across the country visited the site. Kerry Metlen, a forest ecologist for The Nature Conservancy, held up a large cross-section of a ponderosa pine killed in a forest fire in 1810. The tree’s age rings and traces of fire damage are marked on the tree Metlen said sprouted in 1388 and survived 18 forest fires. Lomakasti and partners visited the site a prescribed underburn in the Ashland watershed April 29, 2026, conducted by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest with additional fire personnel provided through Lomakatski’s Inter-Tribal Oregon Conservation Corps. Marko Bey, founder and executive director of Lomakatsi Restoration Project, front, and members of Lomakatski’s Inter-Tribal Fire and Forestry Conservation Corps study a large cross-section of a ponderosa pine killed in a forest fire in 1810. Lomakatski’s crew worked with U.S. Forest Service on a prescribed underburn in the Ashland watershed, part of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Ashland Forestry officer Chris Chambers speaks to the crew and others assembled near a prescribed underburn in the Ashland watershed April 29, 2026, conducted by the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest with additional fire personnel provided through Lomakatski’s Inter-Tribal Oregon Conservation Corps. Marko Bey, founder and executive director of Lomakatsi Restoration Project, center, is with Meldrick One Horse Meza, vice-chairman of the Gidutikad Band of Northern Paiutes-Fort Bidwell Indian Community Council, and Kevin Dean Townsend, right, council chairman. The site of the prescribed burn around is at the Lower East View Trailhead in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.