The Columbia River Gorge Commission wants to express our deep gratitude to the U.S. Forest Service, firefighters, first responders and county sheriff departments for all their hard work to keep the public safe and homes protected during the Eagle Creek fire. As the land use agency for the National Scenic Area, we are cooperating closely with Gorge-wide resource specialists to plan for the next phase of recovery after the fire is contained. Our goal is to assure that all our Gorge communities and resources are protected as much as possible and to assist with ecosystem restoration efforts, mitigation, and re-building structures as needed once an official assessment is made on the fire’s impact. We are also evaluating how to improve fire prevention and emergency response measures in our management plan as part of our “Gorge 2020” process. Landscapes will recover with time. They may look different for awhile but they are resilient. We need to be patient, hopeful, thoughtful and inclusive in our approach as we collectively move forward to plan our next steps. For Eagle Creek fire updates on the U.S. Forest Service's incident response page: at: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5584.