LOSTINE — With the end of firewood season close at hand, the Wallowa Mountains Office is offering a unique opportunity in the Lostine Canyon.

The second week of October, wildland firefighters fell hazard trees along the Lostine River Road that are available for the general public to cut up and remove with a special permit available only at the Wallowa Mountains Office in Joseph, good through Nov. 30.

As part of the Lostine River Corridor Public Safety Project 1,000 hazard trees were cut down by firefighters last spring. Firewood permits were sold to commercial woodcutters only. Wallowa Mountains Office District Ranger Kris Stein said this time the general public is invited.

“We had really great success with the commercial firewood sale this spring, so this fall we are going to focus on personal use,” Stein said.

Normally when an area is open to firewood gathering in Wallowa County on the national forest, woodcutters find the trees themselves, Stein said, but during this special firewood opportunity only trees felled by Forest Service employees will be available for collection.

Clint Foster, Wallowa Mountains Office silviculturist, said most of the felled trees available for collection with the special permit are between Irondyke Campground and Two Pan Trailhead where the Lostine River Road ends.

“We are absolutely thrilled we can provide this important resource to the community,” Stein said. “We know it is harder and harder to get access to good firewood.”

Nathan Goodrich is the fire management officer for the Wallowa-Whitman North Zone. He said 250 trees were cut this week and another 500 will come out in spring 2018 to improve safety along the road for travelers and campers between Irondyke Campground and Two Pan Trailhead at the very end of the Lostine River Road.

“We removed trees causing imminent danger — dead ones already leaning and threatening to hit the road,” Goodrich said.

Live trees that are risking public safety, some more than 100 feet tall, will be taken out with logging equipment at a later date, Goodrich said.

Another part of the Lostine River Corridor Public Safety Project focuses on public and private boundaries. Firefighters thinned out a dense thicket of trees and piled them for burning next year to create a fuel break to reduce the risk of wildfire on private land. By opening up the forest canopy, Goodrich said, when a wildfire does run through the stand it will burn more along the ground than in the trees’ canopies. With less fuel on the ground because of firewood collection and slash piles, there is even less risk of damage by fire.

Goodrich said as for public safety, the highest priority was clearing hazardous trees near the road.

“Every inch of the project has a different focus, but it’s all about public safety,” Goodrich said.

See complete story in Wednesday’s Observer