ARTICLES
Why Big, Intense Wildfires Are the New Normal
National Geographic
A Warming World is Sparking More and Bigger Wildfires
Yale Environment 360
Stanford engineer’s study shows effects of biomass burning on climate, health
Stanford University Engineering
Did Climate Change Worsen the Southern California Fires?
The Atlantic
In a Warming California, A Future of More Fire
New York Times
SCIENTIFIC STUDIES
High severity wildfire effects on carbon stocks and emissions in fuels treated and untreated forest
Forest Ecology and Management
Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US
Drought, Tree Mortality, and Wildfire in Forests Adapted to Frequent Fire
American Institute of Biological Sciences
An Ecosystem Management Study for Sierra Mixed-Conifer Forests
US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station
California Forest Carbon Plan
Forest Climate Action Team
Why Big, Intense Wildfires Are the New Normal
National Geographic
A Warming World is Sparking More and Bigger Wildfires
Yale Environment 360
Stanford engineer’s study shows effects of biomass burning on climate, health
Stanford University Engineering
Did Climate Change Worsen the Southern California Fires?
The Atlantic
In a Warming California, A Future of More Fire
New York Times
SCIENTIFIC STUDIES
High severity wildfire effects on carbon stocks and emissions in fuels treated and untreated forest
Forest Ecology and Management
Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US
Drought, Tree Mortality, and Wildfire in Forests Adapted to Frequent Fire
American Institute of Biological Sciences
An Ecosystem Management Study for Sierra Mixed-Conifer Forests
US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station
California Forest Carbon Plan
Forest Climate Action Team
2018 Governor's Executive Order -
More Prescribed Fire
In Calfornia
Click Here: 2018 Governor's Executive Order
More Prescribed Fire
In Calfornia
Click Here: 2018 Governor's Executive Order
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TRIBAL BURNING IN MONTEREY COUNTY
Esalen Tribal members are planning prescribed burns at Tassajara
and the Kuchun tribal site in Arroyo Seco to restore traditional cultural practices to improve ecosystem health and remove invasive species and restore native grasses.
more to come...
Esalen Tribal members are planning prescribed burns at Tassajara
and the Kuchun tribal site in Arroyo Seco to restore traditional cultural practices to improve ecosystem health and remove invasive species and restore native grasses.
more to come...
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What Fire Researchers Learned
From Northern California Blazes
High Country News Article
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Wildland Firefighter Academy
Green Gulch Zen Center
19 Wildland Firefighter Trainees completed NWCG Certification for 15 days, 80 hours of Wildland Firefighter II, Wildland Fire Pumps (S 211), and Wildland Chain Saws (S 212).
Green Gulch Zen Center
19 Wildland Firefighter Trainees completed NWCG Certification for 15 days, 80 hours of Wildland Firefighter II, Wildland Fire Pumps (S 211), and Wildland Chain Saws (S 212).
NOVEMBER 5 - 19, 2017
In cooperation with
San Francisco Zen Center ~ Muir Beach Fire ~ Golden State Fire Support
In cooperation with
San Francisco Zen Center ~ Muir Beach Fire ~ Golden State Fire Support
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GOOD FIRE WORKSHOP
NOVEMBER 16 2017
GREEN GULCH FARM ~ MARIN COUNTY
The National Parks Service, Green Gulch Zen Center, and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy joined forces in a day dedicated to showing the role of fire in the ecosystem and the cultural fire history and practices of the area.
During the day we learned about fire history, and fire management options around Mt. Tamalpias now and for the future. In the afternoon an educational demonstration with live fire burning allowed us to learn different components of fire fuels, fire physics and heat transfer.
MUIR BEACH FIRE GREEN GULCH FARM NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY
CENTRAL COAST RX FIRE COUNCIL
GOLDEN STATE FIRE SUPPORT
Fire has always been a valuable resource throughout the Bay Area and awareness of its importance has only increased throughout time.
Historically cultural burning by the Native Americans and later through a combination of burning and grazing by the Euro-American settlers has helped shaped the grasslands, shrublands, and forests throughout Marin County.
Awareness of both the historical and current uses of fire, along with the negative and positive impacts and beneficial effects that fire can have on the region is important to understand because these proper fire management policies and practices allow us to better manage our natural resources and protect communities, both human and biological.
GOOD FIRE WORKSHOP
NOVEMBER 16 2017
GREEN GULCH FARM ~ MARIN COUNTY
The National Parks Service, Green Gulch Zen Center, and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy joined forces in a day dedicated to showing the role of fire in the ecosystem and the cultural fire history and practices of the area.
During the day we learned about fire history, and fire management options around Mt. Tamalpias now and for the future. In the afternoon an educational demonstration with live fire burning allowed us to learn different components of fire fuels, fire physics and heat transfer.
MUIR BEACH FIRE GREEN GULCH FARM NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY
CENTRAL COAST RX FIRE COUNCIL
GOLDEN STATE FIRE SUPPORT
Fire has always been a valuable resource throughout the Bay Area and awareness of its importance has only increased throughout time.
Historically cultural burning by the Native Americans and later through a combination of burning and grazing by the Euro-American settlers has helped shaped the grasslands, shrublands, and forests throughout Marin County.
Awareness of both the historical and current uses of fire, along with the negative and positive impacts and beneficial effects that fire can have on the region is important to understand because these proper fire management policies and practices allow us to better manage our natural resources and protect communities, both human and biological.
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WINE COUNTRY FIRES BURN HOT
Letters to the Editor
Controlled burns could reduce devastating fires
In early September and again, now in early October, fires are affecting the Bay Area. To a degree we could influence the situation if the state of California employed controlled burns in the late fall when the rainy season begins.
With more precise weather data and our ability to reduce the fire load over time, it makes sense to apply this technique, particularly near the urban/woodland interface.
In the long run, it would make financial sense and reduce catastrophic property and resource loss. Under controlled conditions, firefighters and their equipment would be positioned with safety and efficiency in mind. Options are out the window when fighting random summer/ fall fires. The idea of preventing fires is an unachieveable ! and unrealistic goal; let’s use fire as a tool in our arsenal against devastating and untimely, random fires.
- Patrick P. Pizzo, San Jose
The Mercury News 10/10/2017 - Page A09
Letters to the Editor
Could 5 cents have saved Santa Rosa?
In August of 2014 a large winddriven wildfire was headed for the town of Weaverville. The “Oregon” fire was incinerating everything in its path. More than 1,000 firefighters were assigned to this fire On Nov. 7, 2012 a controlled burn, the “5 cent burn” had been conducted at the edge of Weaverville.
The Oregon fire went into the area where the 5 cent burn had been conducted. The fire became much less intense, giving firefighters the ability to stop the fire and save the town.
Clearly controlled burns are a big part of the solution to our fire problem.
— Eric Moore, Felton
Thursday, 10/12/2017 Pag.A08 The Mercury News
Letters to the Editor
Why California needs more controlled burns
There is a growing consensus that a new approach in dealing with the problem of wildfires is needed, as expressed in a letter earlier this week.
When certain conditions exist fires are inevitable and although it makes us all feel better to point fingers of blame at PG& E, global warming or some guy with a lawn mower, it doesn’t really matter what the initial ignition source was. Fire
is nature’s way of keeping things clean and healthy, limiting destruction to weeds and debris while sparing large trees.
We are seeing that although crews do a great job, waiting to take action until fires are raging through overgrown brush is not working. Controlled burns are badly needed, starting as soon as weather permits. While this will not eliminate wildfires at least they could be far more manageable.
— Dan Greenbank, San Jose
The Mercury News 10/20/2017 - Page A10
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SOBERANES FIRE SUPPRESSION COSTS: $262,000,000
THE MOST EXPENSIVE WILDFIRE IN HISTORY
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THE FIREBREAK COALITION
LANDOWNERS JOIN FORCES TO REDUCE FUTURE COSTS AND LOSSES
Carmel River Watershed Conservancy
Santa Lucia Conservancy
Big Sur Land Trust
Fire Safe Council for Monterey County
Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District
Carmel Highlands Homeowner's Association
Carmel Highlands Fire District
California State Parks
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Cachagua Community Task Force
Malpaso Creek Homeowner's Association
G 16 Coalition
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Central Coast Rx Fire Council
Carmel River Watershed Conservancy
Santa Lucia Conservancy
Big Sur Land Trust
Fire Safe Council for Monterey County
Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District
Carmel Highlands Homeowner's Association
Carmel Highlands Fire District
California State Parks
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Cachagua Community Task Force
Malpaso Creek Homeowner's Association
G 16 Coalition
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Central Coast Rx Fire Council
Key Actions:
Updated mapping supporting a cross jurisdictional Unified Pre Fire Attack Plan in cooperation with landowners impacted by fire lines during the Soberanes Fire.
Maintenance of historical successful fire breaks to protect life, property, cultural and ecological resources, while preparing the community to be ready for the fire next time.
Managing fire fuel loads to reduce fire intensity and severity and establish safe strategic anchor points for firefighters utilizing existing fire lines.
Planning ahead with proactive landscape scale fuel break maintenance, strategic fire fuel reduction, and safe prescribed burn projects to protect communities and headwaters and watershed resilience.
Restoring native grasses and protecting sensitive species by maintaining contoured shaded fuel breaks using traditional cultural practices, manual and mechanical maintenance, prescribed fire, and grazing.
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The Berkeley Hills fire of 1991 burned 3,000 homes, killed 25 people, causing $2.7 Billion in losses.
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More Prescribed Fire In California
Fire Memorandum Of Understanding
The Governor's Emergency Tree Mortality Executive Order and the Fire Memorandum of Understanding signed by Calfire, the United States Forest Service, and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy along with the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Forest Legacy, and multiple environmental groups call for increased prescribed burning in California.
For more Fire MOU Partnership info: https://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/
Become a Fire MOU Signatory
The state's fire deficit, the number of acres annually that need to be burned, preferably under controlled prescription, in California's fire prone landscape is over 500,000 acres per year.
Increasing capacity of Calfire's Vegetation Management Program to 20,000 acres per year, and increasing private permit LE 5 and LE 7 & LE 8 burning has been identified as a priority to increase pace and scale of prescribed burn acreage accomplishments as soon as possible.
The Little Hoover Commission and the Senate and Assembly Natural Resources Committees are considering actions necessary to address Tree Mortality and the call to increase prescribed fire control burn capacity in California.
Liability and funding are at the top of the discussion.
Natural Resources Joint Hearing February 27, 2017
Little Hoover Commission Hearing On Forest Health January 26, 2017
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Advanced Live Fire Training
Fire Ignition Operations
June 14 & 15 2017
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FIREFIGHTER TRAINING
TASSAJARA
WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER ACADEMY
APRIL 18 - 22, 2017
APRIL 15 - 20, 2018
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Carmel Valley, California
California State Fire Marshal Certified
National Wildfire Coordinating Group Certified
The Tassajara Fire Academy is a five day training intensive for Tassajara Fire Brigade firefighters held each April at Tassajara Zen Mountan Center in the Santa Lucia mountains of Central California.
The purpose of the Academy is to train Tassajara students in wildland firefighting, with student seats available to community cooperators and professional partners. The training covers the following wildland standards:
- IS-700a NIMS An Introduction
- I-100: Introduction to ICS
- S-130 Wildland Firefighter Training
- S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior
- L-180 Human Factors
The Academy is a ‘hands on’ learning practice, putting students in the field with equipment in hand and live fire on the ground, while still covering required classroom material.
Trainees develop skills through direct engagement in tasks under realistic conditions, rather than digesting long sequences of powerpoint slides or webpages and trying to understand and translate ‘head learning’ into safe action on the job.
2017 attendance by Tassajara Zen Montain Center, Central Coast Rx Fire Council, Amah Mutsen Tribal Members, California State Parks, Santa Clara County Parks, Green Gulch Farm, and veteran firefighters of the Los Padres.
For Information About The 2019 Tassajara Firefighter Academy
Contact: CentralCoastRxFireCouncil@gmail.com
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Lighting Fires: To Help California's Environment
February 2, 2016 Southern California Public Radio
With a historic drought, tree mortality and devastating wildfires plaguing California in recent years, environmental groups and government agencies have formed a partnership to increase the use of intentional fires to help the plight of the environment.
A Memorandum of Understanding workshop held Tuesday introduced the partnership, explaining how the agencies will bring together resources to better protect California's rural areas, according to a press release.
Recently, California fires in Butte and Valley burned more than 70,000 acres each, destroying hundreds of structures. Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said that recent wildfires have burned with unprecedented intensity.
"This is a direct result, of course, of drought and increased tree mortality across the state, but it's also because we haven't been able to use fire as a tool," Pimlott said during a teleconference about the partnership.
More than nine partners have signed on to the Memorandum of Understanding, including Cal Fire, the National Park Service, the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.
Pimlott said in a press release that the governor's proclamation of an emergency when it comes to dying trees identifies intentional fire as a beneficial tool for restoring forests — and limiting pollution during wildfires.
"An estimated 54 percent of California ecosystems are fire dependent, and most of the rest are fire adapted."
California: A Fire Survey
Stephen J. Pyne
University of Arizona Press
2016
California: A Fire Survey
Stephen J. Pyne
University of Arizona Press
2016
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Commentary:
Tree Mortality Demands Swift, Aggressive Actions
Issue Date: June 15, 2016
By Ken Pimlott
California is ramping up for what may be another challenging year for wildfires. Though welcome rain occurred during the winter, it was already too late for the millions of trees that have died due to the historic drought and epidemic bark beetle infestation.
Though natural disturbance agents such as wildfire, drought, insects and disease eventually restore a balance in natural ecosystems, the drastic and periodic disturbances of catastrophic wildfires and large-scale tree mortality from bark beetles are not compatible with a population of 38 million people, many of whom like to live in a forested environment. All depend on forest lands for water and other ecosystem services.
The strong connection between healthy forests and a clean, reliable water source only underscores the need for swift and aggressive actions to mitigate the threat this epidemic poses to our forests.
On Oct. 30, 2015, Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. proclaimed a state of emergency, due to unprecedented levels of dead and dying trees in California. Based on U.S. Forest Service Aerial Detection Surveys, it is currently estimated that more than 29 million trees are dead due to pests, exacerbated by severe drought. New surveys in the current year are expected to double or triple that number.
Conditions are ripe for this epidemic to spread substantially in 2016, resulting in an increased threat to lives, property, critical infrastructure and California's precious natural resources.
Immediately following Gov. Brown's proclamation, a Statewide Tree Mortality Task Force was formed to assist local jurisdictions and implement the governor's directives. Comprised of more than 80 entities, the Tree Mortality Task Force represents federal, state, local and tribal governments, non-governmental organizations, and utility and energy companies. Task Force members and other stakeholders have prioritized the most critical needs and coordinated the expenditure of funds toward equipment, grant funding to address some of the most pressing hazards, and the redirection of existing state resources to address impacts posed by the widespread tree mortality.
Private, non-industrial land constitutes 25 percent of the 32 million acres of forested land base in California, and the majority of privately owned forest lands. Unfortunately, landowners often do not have the resources or the technical expertise to actively manage their properties. As a result, there continues to be a strong need for technical assistance and funding to assist these landowners with meeting their management objectives, including overall forest health and sustainability.
Cal Fire has partnered with the American Forest Foundation, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, individual counties and others, to reach out to private, non-industrial landowners affected by the tree mortality epidemic. The effort is focused on providing technical assistance and management planning, as well as grant funding to improve forest health conditions.
Forests in California are comprised of both public and private ownership, often intermixed within single watersheds. A large, landscape-level approach across multiple ownerships is going to be key to making real strides toward achieving healthy forests in California.
Cal Fire, along with the U.S. Forest Service, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and many other partners, is working on implementing cross-boundary projects that leverage multiple programs, initiatives and funding sources. Projects will include a balanced mix of activities such as thinning, reforestation, prescribed burning and fuel reduction, intended to increase carbon storage in forests, reduce wildfire emissions and protect upper watersheds, where much of the state's water supply originates. This work will involve a multitude of partners, including large and small private landowners, federal and state agencies, conservation groups, the forest products industry and other stakeholders.
Recent interagency agreements will help provide tools and resources for working across these ownership boundaries. The Good Neighbor Authority, authorized under the federal farm bill, is an agreement between the California Natural Resources Agency and the U.S. Forest Service, allowing the signatory agencies to conduct restoration projects on the landscape seamlessly across ownership boundaries.
In addition, a prescribed fire Memorandum of Understanding among the USFS, Sierra Forest Legacy, Cal Fire and other partners has been initiated that will help us apply prescribed fire to the landscape at a meaningful ecological scale.
Addressing California's forest health issues and engaging in active forest management in a meaningful way requires a long-term investment. No single agency, organization or program is going to solve the wide range of threats to California's forests alone. It is going to take a balanced approach of all the agencies, funding sources and management options available to address the impacts to California's forests as a result of an evolving climate.
Although the epidemic tree mortality we are facing is devastating, it has galvanized partnerships at all levels and placed a renewed interest toward engaging in our forests unlike any I have ever seen. With disaster comes opportunity.
(Ken Pimlott is Cal Fire Chief and California State Forester.)
National Cohesive Strategy
Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item.
