Indictment of US Forest Service Burn Boss in Oregon Could Chill ‘Good Fires’ Across the Country

By Grant Stringer

A “burn boss” with the U.S. Forest Service is facing unprecedented criminal charges for an escaped prescribed burn in rural Oregon, which may complicate nationwide goals to set low-intensity fires that can thin out excess vegetation and dead wood in overgrown forests to improve forest health and lower the risk of uncontrollable wildfires igniting.