Effective Thursday, September 3, 2020 the Tillamook State Forest and surrounding Oregon Department of Forestry protected lands will enter a Fire Danger Level of HIGH and an Industrial Fire Precaution Level (IFPL) of 3.
OHV trails in the Browns Camp, Lyda Camp, Diamond Mill and Trask designated areas remain open.
Forest visitors can expect to see some new gates being installed in the Tillamook State Forest along the Highway 6 and Highway 26 corridors. These are fire protection gates to facilitate temporary closure of specific geographic areas during periods of high and extreme fire danger in an effort to reduce the likelihood of human caused fires occurring in these areas. The areas behind these gates will remain open to foot traffic and hunting activity. The gates will re-open when the fire danger drops back down to moderate.
As we are currently experiencing a weather pattern that will raise the fire danger and IFPL levels on Thursday, September 3, 2020, these gates will be closing over the next several days as described below.
Here
is more specific information about the gate locations:
The Tillamook State Forest management team is installing gates at several forest access points along the Highway 26 and Highway 6 corridors. These gates will only be closed during active forest operations or during periods high and extreme fire danger conditions to reduce the potential for human caused wildfires on State Forests lands.
The gates on Highway 26 will be installed at the entrances to:
- · North Fork of Wolf Creek Road
- · McGregor Road
- · Music Road
The Highway 26 gates at these locations will be closed starting Friday, September 4, 2020 and will remain closed until the fire danger level drops back down to moderate.
The gates on Highway 6 will be installed at the entrances to:
- · Storeyburn Road
- · Drift Creek Road
- · Idiot Creek Road
The Highway 6 gates at these locations will likely remain open through the Labor Day weekend but may be closed sooner if there is a significant change in the fire danger or if the area experiences fire activity.
Both
of these areas remain open to entry by foot traffic only and to hunting.