Orleans California has been the location of the Klamath River Training Exchange (TREX) a cooperative effort between the Salmon River Restoration Council, Mid Klamath Watershed Council, the Karuk Tribe and the Nature Conservancy, to train people traditional method of fuel reduction, used by tribes in the area for generations, prescribed fire. The efforts have been ongoing for the last several years, since many of the rural communities on the Salmon and Klamath River lack the resources to fight large scale fires. The concept of prescribed fire is to burn in a weather condition that allows fire to clean up the forest floor and excess woody material, without killing and damaging healthy trees. It can serve as way to combat bug infestations and a way to encourage native grasses and beneficial plants to replace hazardous fuels. The Klamath River is perfect classroom setting to learn about how and why prescribed fire can help lessen the danger of that the years of non-management and drought have created in our forests. Experts like Fire Storm, mentor young forest workers and fire crews, in techniques learned in decades of using proscribed fire. Skills learned in this training could help firefighters lessen the damage of back-burns used during wildfires as well as increasing the black zones that allow fire fighters to find safety, in an effort to reduce fires of the future. This a part of article that was first printed in the Redding Record Searchlight.n
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