PRINEVILLE, Ore. -- In anticipation of favorable weather conditions, fuels specialists from the Prineville BLM plan to ignite a prescribed burn in the Sanford Creek area southeast of Prineville Reservoir beginning Tuesday.

The goal for the fuels treatment is to reduce the number of western juniper and to restore more traditional shrub-steppe vegetation.

The current project area is approximately 1,200 acres; however, specialists will only be completing the blacklining portion of the project at this time.

Blacklining is a process where fuels specialists ignite strips of vegetation next to an existing containment line such as a road or rocky area, increasing the overall width of all control lines. This portion of the burn will be done when cooler temperatures and higher humidity will decrease fire behavior.

Ignitions are expected to take place over the next 1-2 days, and the interior portion of the prescribed burn area will be completed at another time when weather conditions are more summer-like. In order to achieve the objective of reducing young juniper by 50-80 percent and older (but not old growth) juniper by 40-70 percent, fuels specialists will have to burn under hot and dry conditions.

Patrols and mop-up activities will occur during and following ignitions, and night patrols will occur on an as-needed basis, depending on conditions.

Smoke from the Sanford Creek prescribed burn may be visible from the Prineville Reservoir and Prineville Reservoir State Park areas, as well as from the Conant Basin area to the east.

All controlled burns are completed in cooperation with the Oregon Department of Forestry smoke management plan.