Starker Forest Burn Notification

Starker Forests would like to let you know that we will be burning the logging slash piles on our timberlands across from your neighborhood, southwest of Marys River Estates Road, soon. This is a PLANNED burn. You may notice flames, smoke, or a glow in the sky at night.

After timber harvest, woody debris, if left on the landscape, can be a physical barrier to tree planting and pose a wildfire hazard.  It is usual and customary for forest landowners to burn logging slash piles during the fall, after fire season has ended.

We use best management practices for burning the piles. 

As landowners, we are required to follow Oregon smoke rules, which were approved by the Oregon Board of Forestry and accepted by the Enviornmental Quality Commission in 2019. For a burn "unit", we estimate the tons of material to burn, fill out a smoke management registration form and burn plan and submit them to the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF). Then, we monitor the weather and eventually call the local ODF office (Philomath) to see if our burn can fit within Oregon's Smoke Management Plan. The ODF office grants permission to burn the piles. Sometimes many landowners would like to burn on the same day and ODF decides who will burn when and where. Once the piles are burned, we will monitor them throughout the winter to ensure the piles do not rekindle. The harvest unit you can see from your neighborhood will have the next generation of seedlings growing by the end of March.

If you have any questions, please call our office at 541-929-2477.

Starker Forests, Inc. owns, grows and manages forests and strives for excellence in terms of forest resource stewardship. We are a fifth-generation family business and strive to successfully meet the needs of our owners, employees and the community. We manage 93,000 acres in Benton, Lincoln, Linn, Lane and Polk Counties and welcome the public onto our lands for recreation such as hunting, hiking and biking. For a free, and required, permit, come to our office at 7240 SW Philomath Blvd, Corvallis, Monday - Friday, 7 am to 4 pm.