Multi-year Wallowa-Whitman Project Thins Forest to Protect Baker City Watershed

Crews working for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest have cut trees on about 1,750 acres and piled slash on roughly 950 acres as part of a multi-year effort to reduce the risk of a wildfire reaching Baker City’s drinking-water watershed. Work this winter has focused southwest of Baker City along several miles of Forest Road 7220, the Old Auburn Road, and the ground between that road and Elk Creek; piling has been done either by machine or by hand.

Baker County Commissioner Christina Witham toured work areas with Forest Service officials and told the county commission at a Feb. 4 meeting, “It’s looking really nice.” The on-the-ground activity is the start of a project unveiled by the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in 2022 that officials have described as the biggest such project ever in the watershed.

The broader plan covers about 23,000 acres and is designed to shield the city’s core 10,000-acre watershed, which has supplied Baker City’s water for more than a century. Goodrich Lake, a natural alpine lake at the north end of the watershed that was dammed to increase capacity, stores about 200 million gallons and typically supplies the city during summer months when stream and spring flows decline.

Project treatments are planned as a mix. The plan calls for about 3,000 acres of commercial logging, about 14,400 acres of precommercial thinning - the type of work that has been done so far - and roughly 22,500 acres of prescribed burning to reduce natural fuel loads as well as slash left after logging. The reporting to date does not specify whether the 22,500 acres slated for prescribed fire are distinct from or overlap the acres set for thinning and logging, a detail the Forest Service can clarify.

Whitman District Ranger Kendall Cikanek stressed the local priority during the project rollout: “This is an important project for the people of Baker City” and “Protecting people’s drinking water is right at the top when you’re defining high-value areas.” Baker City Public Works Director Michelle Owen framed the work as a long-discussed priority for the city: “The Baker City watershed is a major asset to the City of Baker City and our community. We are partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to make the watershed less susceptible to a catastrophic wildfire. Removing excessive fuels and providing for fire breaks along the pipeline road are really the City’s top priorities and in line with the City Council’s goals. This type of a project has been discussed for many years and it’s great that there is finally some real progress being made.”

Partners named in planning include Baker County natural resources staff, the Oregon Department of Forestry, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the OSU Extension Service, with support noted from Oregon’s congressional delegation. Early public engagement included an open house in August 2022 at the Baker County Events Center.

For local residents the work means a visible change in forest character along Old Auburn Road and surrounding access roads, and the prospect of prescribed burns and additional thinning in coming years. The project aims both to reduce the likelihood of a high-severity fire in the watershed and to limit fires approaching from the south, the path summer lightning storms commonly take. Remaining tasks include piling slash on the acres not yet finished and scheduling prescribed burns; authorities have not detailed a public timeline for work inside the watershed itself. As the multi-year project continues, officials say Baker City’s water supply is the priority and further updates on treatment maps, burn timing, and smoke management will follow.