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• OREGON WILDFIRES: Bigger, Hotter & Smokier

  • When
    10 Sep 2026
  •  
    12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Willamette Heritage Center, Dye House, 1313 Mill St Salem Oregon, 97301

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  Wildfires have ignited across Oregon this spring and summer, burning hundreds of thousands of acres and millions of board feet of lumber.  Oregon is a biologically and topographically diverse state with different fuel loads in each region.  A grass fire in eastern Oregon and a timber fire in southwestern Oregon require different firefighting strategies.  Protecting Oregon from wildfires requires increasingly sophisticated equipment and strategies.

  
  

  In 2026, a year of less snowpack and drier forests, wildfires spread quickly.  Small fires that used to be easily contained by a crew creating a perimeter line and water trucks now spread quickly, requiring far more resources.  Despite a sophisticated fire detection network, the wildfires of 2026 exceeded 1.9 million  acres burned in 2024.

  
  

  Many state and federal agencies suc as the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Oregon State FIre Marshall, and the U.S. Wildland Fire Service are part of an extensive fire protection network in Oregon.  Joining these fire management experts are the professors and staff at the Department of Forest engineering, Resources & Management in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University.

  
  

  Speaker

  Dr. John D Bailey

  
  

  Salem City Club's speaker for its fall opening program is Dr. John D. Bailey, a professor of Silviculture and Fire Management in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (OSU).  Professor Bailey will share his understanding and experiences that can help Oregonians face this growing wildfire challenge.

  
  

  For 20 Years, Professor Bailey has been at OSU rebuilding a wildland fire curriculum and continuing research on fuels/fire management and sustainable forest management in fire-prone forest types, including multi-story management and prescribed fire in mixed forest types for broad conservation objectives.

  
  

  His research and outreach focus on wildfire risk and how to use active forest and fire management to minimize the adverse impacts of future wildfire, and how to recover from these cumulative events.  These topics are synthesized in his 2024 book titled "A Walk With Wildland Fire".

  
  

  Bailey obtained his BS and MF degrees from Virginia Tech, where he was a squad boss with the Virginia Department of Forestry and USDA Forest Service.  After graduation, he worked for 6+ years as a research administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency looking at multiple forest stressors.  He completed his PhD at OSU and joined the faculty at Northern Arizona University in 1996, where he worked in pine silviculture, fuels management and ecological restoration.  He joined the OSU faculty in 2000.

  
  

  Event Details:

  Doors open at 11:30

  Program starts at 12:00

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