The 517,000 acre Five Buttes Interface project is located approximately 15 miles south of the community of La Pine in eastern Oregon. This project represents an interagency effort involving the Deschutes National Forest and the BLM’s Prineville district. Vegetation in the project area includes ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, mountain hemlock, and lodgepole pine forests typically characterized by fire exclusion over the past 80 years.

There has been a recent history of large, high-severity fires in this region. Sixty percent of this area is rated Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) 2 or 3. Of primary concern in the project area are high fuel loadings in forested areas along major routes and at the wildland-urban interface and endangered species habitat, including late and old-structured stands.

Key project objectives included reducing the size and intensity of wildland fires in addition to associated management costs; reducing the risk of large-scale loss of forest due to insects, disease, and/or uncharacteristically severe wildfires; and returning fire to the ecosystem, wherever practical, as a natural agent of fuel reduction. Participants included The Nature Conservancy, the USDA Forest Service, and the Department of the Interior. The study design included the use of FVS/FFE, INFORMS, FARSITE, and FlamMap.