Oregon's Willamette National Forest has been aggressively promoting a proposal to use helicopters to ignite prescribed fires within the Mt. Washington Wilderness to correct decades of fire suppression efforts. Promoted as the minimum acceptable alternative I was amazed to discover that the proposal included no limits on the number or duration of flights, or even landing, in the wilderness.

This project proposes to use helicopters ignite prescribed burns within the Mount Washington Wilderness.  The use of mechanization as a management tool is acceptable within wilderness only in cases of overwhelming need.  The cost, need, and scope of helicopter use is poorly defined in this proposal and does not meet guidelines defined within the Wilderness Act.

The proposal for this project has been retracted.  No additional followup is required.