A Year of Beneficial Fire: 127 Acres Treated, Funding Secured to Further Forest Resilience

Columbia Land Trust makes strides to advance restorative fire in the East Cascades

This year, Columbia Land Trust made significant progress toward our long-term effort to bring beneficial fire back to the dry forests of Washington’s East Cascades. Through close collaboration with local partners, we completed five prescribed burns across two conserved natural areas, restoring ecological health to a combined 127 acres of forest and reducing the risk of high-severity wildfire for nearby communities. 

“We feel really good about the now 127 acres of treated forest that exists between the Klickitat River canyon and the more densely populated plateau west of Goldendale,” said East Cascades Oak Partnership Manager Lindsay Cornelius. “The removal of fuels thanks to these burns can turn down the temperature of future fires and slow the rate of spread, reducing the risk of catastrophic fire carrying into neighboring homes.” 

At Bear Creek Natural Area, nestled along the upper Klickitat River just outside Glenwood, Washington our spring and fall prescribed burns restored 52 acres of mixed pine and fir forest. 

“Before the burn, there was a thick layer of leaves and needles on the ground, and a lot of small pines and thickets of young firs,” said Natural Area Manager Adam Lieberg. “We were able to greatly reduce the amount of duff and needle litter and reduce the number of smaller diameter trees that developed in the absence of low-intensity fire.” 

To the south, at Bowman Creek Natural Area near Goldendale, the Land Trust burned 75 acres of pine and oak forest over three days this October, our largest broadcast burn effort to date. The goal here was the same: reduce dense understory fuels and restore a more open forest structure to reduce competition stress and reduce how much precipitation is intercepted by the tree canopy. 

Across both sites, our prescribed burns helped: 

• Clear excess surface fuels across 127 acres of forest, including dead needles, leaves, and woody debris that contribute to high-intensity fire 

• Reduce ladder fuels that can carry high-intensity fire from the forest floor into the tree canopy 

• Open the understory to support native grasses, wildflowers, and fire-adapted wildlife habitat 

• Improve tree health, particularly for mature pines and oaks that rely on periodic fire to reduce competition 

• Protect communities like Glenwood and Goldendale by lowering the likelihood of extreme wildfire in neighboring forests 

• Provide important hands-on training for prescribed fire practitioners within the Land Trust and local partners. 

Since time immemorial, lightning strikes ignited fires in late summer and Indigenous Peoples used fire to revitalize the landscape. But due to fire suppression over the last two centuries, fuel loads that were once controlled at frequent intervals have accumulated to hazardous levels—an issue compounded by hotter, drier summers. Columbia Land Trust’s prescribed burn efforts are part of our long-term vision to help restore a healthier, more natural rhythm back to the forests of the East Cascades. 

This year’s work at Bear Creek and Bowman Creek reflects meaningful progress toward this vision. It’s also part of the Land Trust’s much longer learning journey rooted in years of research, training, and regional capacity-building. 

Our regional fire knowledge has been informed by scientists like research ecologist Dr. Kim Davis and fire ecologist Dr. Andrew Merschel, whose study of fire history helped illuminate how the dry forests of the East Cascades have evolved with frequent, low-intensity fire, returning as often as every one to two decades prior to the 1800s. (Explore these resources to learn more: Mapping Wildfire History in Mt. Hood National Forest and Webinar: Understanding Fire in the Forest).   

At the same time, our stewardship team spent the last two years honing our technical skills to bring prescribed fire back to our conserved lands. In fall 2023, we completed our first broadcast burn at Bear Creek Natural Area as part of the Columbia Gorge TREX program—an experiential training exchange to build hands-on skills for beneficial burning. 

While fire suppression over the last two centuries contributed to fuel loading, other changes were underfoot that have complicated the return of fire to our forests: people have built homes in fire adapted forests, new, aggressive plant species that respond favorably to fire have established here, and our understanding of smoke and its health effects have improved. We are monitoring and observing our burns to better understand these effects. 

Each subsequent burn will build on what we’ve learned—allowing us to refine our techniques, strengthen partnerships, and deepen our understanding of how fire can safely and effectively support the landscapes we manage. To date, Columbia Land Trust has successfully returned beneficial fire via broadcast burn to 233 acres of our conserved forestland. 

Looking Ahead: A Community Wildfire Defense Grant Will Support Restorative Fire Efforts in the Region 

This year’s success comes alongside the exciting news that Columbia Land Trust has been awarded a Community Wildfire Defense Grant, a competitive federal funding opportunity designed to help at-risk communities across the nation reduce regional wildfire severity. This grant will advance our fuels reduction and prescribed fire work in high-priority forests of the upper Klickitat River watershed, supporting our ability to collaborate with local contractors and partners to restore resilience at a landscape scale. 

“This funding is an investment in the safety, health, and resilience of our entire community, including neighboring tribal forestlands, important habitats, and rural towns like Glenwood,” said Lindsay. “These funds were allocated specifically to reduce the risk of high-severity fire in some of the most vulnerable forestlands in Washington.” 

With this support, the Land Trust and our partners will be able to: 

• Implement thinning and prescribed fire treatments on roughly 3,000 acres of high-priority forest stands in the upper Klickitat River watershed 

• Remove ladder fuels and dense understory vegetation that increase the risk of extreme wildfire 

• Improve the health of mature pine and oak forests, helping them withstand drought and climate stress 

• Support local contractors, practitioners, and community partners through multi-year forest restoration work 

• Protect critical neighboring lands, including tribal forestlands, the Klickitat Fish Hatchery, and the town of Glenwood 

• Build a long-term, sustainable prescribed fire program that can serve the region for years to come 

The grant will ensure that the Land Trust’s collaborative burn efforts will continue at scale to meet the growing needs of our forests and communities, especially as wildfire season in the Northwest becomes hotter, drier, and longer. 

“We cannot fully restore and manage these dry, fire-adapted forests of the East Cascades without a robust prescribed fire program, and we cannot have a robust prescribed fire program without strong partnerships and a long-term social and financial commitment to repeated thinning and burning,” said Natural Area Manager Adam Lieberg. “We are fortunate to have all those pieces in place at the moment, so it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.” 

This year has shown what’s possible when community members, local fire practitioners, tribal partners, and other partner organizations work together toward a shared vision. We could not have completed our 2025 prescribed burns without our partners at Mt. Adams Resource Stewards and their capable stewardship crew. We would also like to thank the Klickitat, Wahkiacus, and Rural 7 Fire Districts who supported our burns with experienced personnel and fire engines, along with Skookum Resource Management, local volunteers, and members of the Mt. Adams Prescribed Burn Association who participated in burn operations. 

With each acre treated, we see forests that are more open, more resilient, and better equipped to handle a changing climate. Improved habitat for wildlife can be seen in the weeks following each burn, as native plants grow where thick mats of pine needles and woody debris once covered the forest floor. 

Thanks to your support, our conserved forests are growing stronger, and the Columbia River landscape is slowly returning to the natural rhythms that shaped it for thousands of years. The resources coming into the region through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant will bolster this work. And while there is much work to be done, there is more reason than ever to feel hopeful about the future of our fire-adapted forests – and the communities embedded in them – in the East Cascades.